Moving to Santa Barbara
by Kristina4ever
Summary: Santana moves to a new city and crosses paths with a girl that everyone says is big trouble. Trying to help this mystery girl get back on track on request of the her uncle and new principle Jose, Santana finds a completely different person then she had expected underneath all the tattoos and piercings. Punk!Brittany, Puck and Quinn.
1. Moving On

A little story that I thought I would share with y'all. Enjoy (:

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**Chapter one: Moving on**

August 2011

"Papa!" Santana called her father from her room. Huffing in exhaustion she slid down the nearest wall she would reach and made herself comfortable as she waited for her father. Her family had been packing for a full three days now. If she was honest she's been dreading this day for the last few months. Ever since her father told her that they were moving back in March she's been trying to change her old mans mind. But everything Santana tried didn't work. Every single excuse she tried to pass by her father to convince them to stay in L.A was hopeless. He'd always respond with the same answer: "Suck it up princess." and of course he wouldn't leave out his signature smirk that let her know his decision was final.

And now she was leaning against her bare bedroom wall looking at the clutter of large cardboard boxes that covered her floor.

_Maybe moving won't be so bad ._Santana thought. _Yeah right_.

Who was she kidding. She would miss living in her penthouse apartment and going shopping with her fabulously flamboyant friend Kurt every weekend but her father always reminded her that something good will come out of this. "Change might be the end of one world" his voice rang in her head "but it's also a chance to start a new one". Santana hopes he's right. She'd hate to leave the comfort of her home town (more like city) to move to a place she barley knew. Especially in her senior year of high school. Sighing she stood up from her spot on the floor and went off to finish tapping the remaining open boxes in her room.

Once she finishes she looked up just in time to see her step mother Maria walk into her room. The woman was out of her usual attire that was composed of sinfully expensive dresses, pencil skirts and blouses. She wore a plain white tank top and gray sweat pants. Until now Santana didn't think that the older woman owned those kind of clothes. It was so unlike her but Santana guessed duty called. Maria smiled at her shortly before picking up one of Santana's boxes.

"Antonio is in the lobby helping the movers with the heavier furniture." Maria explained. "He should be heading up soon. I'll help you in the mean time though. "

Santana nodded in agreement and picked up one of her boxes. After a few more trips for her room and the main entrance of their apartment the two of them managed to clear out the majority of her stuff from the bedroom. Taking a minute to look around her old home Santana noticed how empty it had gotten. The once packed living room was completely cleared out. Nothing but a few little boxes here and there. Same could be said about the kitchen, bedrooms and hallways.

Walking over to the large glass windows in the living room Santana placed her forehead on the cool glass looking at the towering city buildings. She felt a soft hand gently clasp her shoulder. Maria stood beside her looking at the city scene but didn't say anything to Santana for several minutes.

"I'm really going to miss this place." Santana mumbled out finally.

"I know you will and so will I but you know your father couldn't drop the offer of being the head doctor at Santa Barbra Hospital. It's been his dream for God knows how long. Besides,", Maria tugged Santana into a half huge. "look at the bright side you'll get to go to school with some of your old camp friends right? Trust me you'll love the city."

Santana gave her step mom a small smile. It wasn't that bad if you put it that way. She'd been really looking forwards to seeing her old friends all summer. Especially since she didn't have the chance to go to camp this summer. Maria gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before going off to find their water bottles. Santana watched as the shorter woman walked away. She might have not been her biological mother but she sure resembled her. Some how she always knew what to say and when to say it just like her mother did.

Taking another long look at the city bellow her Santana went back to work. When all of the boxes were finally out of her room. She waited on her father to come up and help her and Maria load them into the truck. At that moment she realized a certain little someone was missing.

"Umm.. where's A.J?" Santana asked Maria as they waited at the apartments entrance. She hadn't seen her brother since this morning when he had rushed into her room and jumped on her bed for what felt like hours until she got up.

"You know him. A.J's in the lobby helping your father and the movers with loading the furniture. For a five year old he's pretty set on being a grown up." Maria chuckled to herself.

_Of course. _Santana thought to herself shacking her head in amusement. The little rascal has always been so mature for his age and he wasn't even in grade school yet. He was just like her father. Serious, persistent and really sweet. It's was like having a mini version of her father running around 24/7. She guessed that's what she got for suggesting he be named after her father. Antonio Junior. God what was she thinking?

The soft ding of the elevator brought her back to reality.

"Took you long enough." Santana jokingly complained as her father stepped out of the elevator.

"Ahh Mia. You cant rush perfection." Her fathers voice bombed thought the empty condo. Antonio was a tall broad shouldered man. His eye's resembled her own. Deep, dark brown and warm. His graying beard and moustache was the only way you could tell that he was a man in his 40's. If his good looks didn't stun the ladies than his charm would definitely turn them into stuttering babbling idiots. Santana loved to pick on him about this when he was in the dating faze after her mother passed away. The only woman besides her mother that never fell for his charm was Maria. That was probable why he marries her.

"Since when is there perfection when your loading up a truck?" Santana questioned her father.

"There is much you have to learn Santana. Oh by the way your friend is waiting for you in the lobby. Something about a last goodbye?" Antonio informed his daughter.

"Oh shoot!" Santana rushed into the elevator. "I completely forgot about Kurt!"

"Here," Her father passed her a box before the elevator doors closed, "don't go down empty handed."

Once Santana reached the main floor and handed on the movers the box she was carrying she rushed to embrace her best friend who was waiting at the lobbies main entrance.

"Santana! Girl were have you been?" Kurt breathed out as his friend squeezed the air out of his lungs. "Easy there. This outfit wasn't made for death grip hugs."

Santana pulled back a few inches and smiled widely at Kurt.

"Who cares about the outfit. It's my last few minutes in this town. Now give me a proper hug."

Kurt jokingly gave her a hurt expression before hugging her back tightly.

"Oooh I'm going to miss you so much! Promise you'll call when you get there." He broke the hug after a few minutes and took a seat on one of the lobby chairs.

"For sure bitch. You don't have to remind me you know." Santana took the seat next to him.

"I'm just saying. Have you texted Sam and them yet?"

"Yeah like last week and a few days after that and this morning." Santana beamed. "I could never forget about your camp bubs. I should be meeting up with Sam and Blain today actually. They offered to help us out with the heavier stuff once we get there."

'Awesome. I should be able to come over this weekend. Maybe help you out with a few final things here and there. And of course organizing your new bedroom." Kurt added.

The two friends chatted for a few more minutes before Kurt had to leave to meet up with a few more of his friends in perfect timing too. They hugged once more and said their goodbyes just as her father finished loading up the rest of the moving truck. Maria and A.J were already waiting in the jeep when her father called her over to get in.

"Santana! Time to head out Mia."

Taking one last look at her old home she said her goodbyes to the door keeper Mr. Richard as she liked to address him by. Hopping into the back seat of the vehicle that was waiting for her the four of them headed out the their new home with the movers trailing behind them. She spent a good amount of her time playing various games like tick tack toe and sticks with her little brother until he fell asleep soundly in his booster seat. Thinking it was a good idea to have a little shut eye herself before they reached their destination Santana plugged into her iPod and drifted off to sleep.

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Night had fallen and the new house she would be calling home from now one was cluttered with boxes and furniture. The house was two time bigger than their apartment back in L.A and Santana's jaw nearly dropped to the ground when she first saw it. Up to that point she had only seen pictures of their new home on the internet and thought it looked ok compared to her condo in L.A. She takes it all back. This place was ten time cooler in really life. With a nice open drive way in the front, exceptional decor in it's interior and an amazing salt water pool in the back with a patio that seemed to go on forever. This place was paradise.

As promised Sam and Blain had been waiting for their arrival in front of the large house when they finally got there. The expected 2 hour drive took double the time thanks to the traffic in L.A and Blain was one to point out how much better Santa Barbra was then L.A for that reason. Traffic was definitely something Santana wasn't going to miss. An hour after they started moving their belongings into the house Antonio's brother Jose came to help them out. Her uncle looked just like her father except he was a few years younger then him. If you put them side by side they could pass them as twins.

"So you ready for school Santanita?" Her uncle asked her before he left for the day.

"Hardly. This summer has just flown by so quickly. I cant believe school starts in only two weeks!"

Santana honestly didn't know where her summer went. She's been so focused on moving since school ended that she didn't notice the time fly by.

Her uncle laughed at her and gave the little brunette a light pat on the back. "Well I'm sure you'll be fine. I'll show you around the school before the school year beings. If I don't have time I'm sure your friends wont mind." He nodded towards Sam and Blain who seemed to be having a comfortable conversation with Maria and her Father. "After all I have the maser key."

To Santana's relief her uncle Jose happened to be the principle of the school she was going to attend that following year. Sure most kids would think it was kind of weird to have a relative as a head of the school they attended but she liked the idea. Jose was an awesome guy and seeing him more often was something she looked forward too.

Her uncle left shortly after their little chat and headed home. Now Santana was laying face down in her half made bed. She couldn't remember the last time she was this tried. Finally mustering up enough energy to get out of bed the short brunette slipped into the shower. Letting the warm water cascade over her body Santana smiled at herself. Even though she was in a completely different city maybe her father had a point. It was to soon to come to any conclusions but this new beginning didn't seem so bad. She decided moving on was worth giving a shot. It's not like she had another choice.

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Do you think this story is worth exploring? Let me know and review (:


	2. Night Out

**Chapter two: Night Out**

End of August 2011 (Brittany's POV)

"Brittany!" Mr. Pierce called his daughter for the bottom of the stairs. "Brittany are you ready yet? It's time to go. The welcome ceremony at the hospital is about to start."

Rolling her eye's at her fathers gazillionth attempt to force her to get ready for another one of his ridiculously ceremony's, Brittany rolled out of her bed and headed towards her closet.

"I told you I'm not going!" The blonde shouted back. Instead of spending the evening with random people she barely knew she thought it best to spend it with a few of her closes friends. School was a week away which meant only one thing. Another year of dealing with sluts, bitches and stuck up jocks. Oh what great times.

After a few seconds she heard loud footsteps heading up the stairs and her fathers figure appeared at the front of her door.

_Shit._

"And I told you that you are. Now get ready. Pick something nice, preferabley somehting that coveres those silly tattoos of yours, and be down in 5 minutes. We don't want to be late." He spoke a matter-of-factly as he adjusted his tie. "Mr. Lopez is a very well respected man in the medical world and as one of the head surgeon at the hospital here my family is expected to be at the ceremony."

Brittany stopped rampaging through her closet and looked up at her father. "I already told you that I was hanging out with Puck today. Stop shoving your 'important' plans in my face."

"These aren't just any plans Brittany. This is a big dea-"

"Oh yeah? For who exactly? Me? Or you maybe and that ridiculous career of yours?" Brittany bit back. Her father always put his career in front of his family. She couldn't recall a time that he actually thought about someone other than himself.

Mr. Pierce's stance became rigid and his usually calm blue eye's turn ice cold as they bore into his daughters. "Brittany Susan Pierce," _Oh here he goes again _Brittany thought to herself, "this ridiculous career is what's keeping you out of jail and in school. Plus being around some of the people from the practice will be good for you. It's better than hanging out with those lowlife people you call your friends."

"Why don't you take all this shit and shove it up you're a-" Brittany started before she got cut off by a second voice.

"Brittany I don't think that's very appropriate language to use when you're talking to your father." Her step mother intruded. God Brittany hated her. More then she hated school and that was saying something since she never really attended class on a weekly basis.

"I'm sorry to say this Malinda but this a family argument which means that you have no place in this conversation." Brittany smiled at her a little to sweetly.

The young woman looked at Brittany in surprise and let out a small gasp as she brought her left and to cover her mouth. Brittany smirked victoriously at the gold digging whore that had wisled her way into her life.

_Score for team Britt._

"Brittany!" Mr. Pierce warned. "That's no way to treat your mo-"

"Please dad save it. She is NOT and will NEVER be my mother." Brittany interrupted her father for the second time that evening. The three of them stood in an awkward silence for a few moments before Brittany finally spoke up again. "I'm out of here."

Grabbing her long board and ragy hipster backpack from the side of her bed Brittany shoved her way though her father and Malinda before heading out of the house. Taking out her aviators and getting on her board Brittany slowly started to ride towards her friends garage. It took a while to get there from her neighbourhood but it was so worth it if it meant getting away from her father and his 'oh so perfect' wife for a few hours.

Brittany pulled out her phone and sent a quick 'I'll be right there' text to her friend Quinn who was probable wondering where she was right now. 30 minutes later she spotted the run down garage just down the street she was currently speeding down on.

"God it took you long enough to get here." Finn complained when he saw Brittany role up his drive way. As usually her freakishly tall friend was covered in grease from head to toe working on one of the cars in his lot.

"Well it's not my fault your place it so damn far away. How's it going grease monkey? Done with my car yet?" Brittany asked him casually as she leaned on the car Finn was working on. The guy had been working on it all summer but never seemed to have get it completely fixed.

"You mean that old piece of shit of a mustang you call your babe?"

Brittany looked at him completely stunned. Sure her car had been called worn out and ridiculously in need of repair but never shitty.

"Kidding! That car's a beaut. Sixty eights are hard to come by but it's in serious need of repair Britts. I'm still waiting on some parts to come in. I've even had to go down by the local dump to find the right pieces for the engine."

"So that's a no?" She asked him simply. As much as she loved Finn the guy really needed to learn to get to the point. Hearing him blabber on all day didn't make things go by any faster.

"Well yeah…" Finn uttered out. "Sorry I can't have it fix before school starts."

"It's cool. I'll just board there if I have to for the first few weeks." Brittany sighed. She was hoping to have it for the first day at least so she wouldn't have to endure the 15 minute ride there on her long board. Don't get her wrong she loved it just not in the morning. Being half awake and riding with about five million things crammed in her mouth that she grabbed from the figure before heading out wasn't how she liked to start her day. She could take the bus however but honestly Brittany wasn't up for dealing with all the little sophomore bitches on there.

"Where's the rest of the gang?" She asked her friend as she took off her sunglasses.

Finn pointed behind him and told Brittany that he would join her in a second. Something about fixing a busted carburetor for tomorrows pick up.

Heading into the garage Brittany spotted Quinn and Puck lounging on Finns old run down couch with both of their feet plopped on the chipped wooden table in front of them tools scattered all over the place. Finn really needed to organize his place. No wonder he barley had any customers. His garage was the pigs thy of mechanics.

"Hey! There's our favourite Lesbo! Where you been at?" Puck greeted her from his position on the couch. Quinn looked up from the book she was reading and gave Brittany a welcoming smile.

Brittany flipped him off as she reached into the cooler beside the table to grabbed herself a beer.

"For your information Puckasaur it wasn't my fault that I was late. I got held up again." Brittany explained as she chugged down half of her beer in a few gulps.

"Trouble in paradise huh?" Quinn asked casually with her face still pressed into the book she was reading. Brittany plopped down on the couch beside her.

"Please that place is a hell hole. I can barely stand being in the same house as my father and his bimbo wife without wanting to claw my eye's out."

"Hey hey easy there champ. That girl your father has there is a total M.I.L.F." Puck objected.

"Yeah and a class A gold digger." Brittan mumbled under her breath just loud enough for Quinn to hear. "She's like only two or three years older than Finn here. She could pass as my sister for fuck sakes."

The 21 year old man walked in to join his friends as his name was mentioned.

"True that." The taller boy agreed.

'Whatever." Puck throw his hands up in the air in defeat. "She's still hot though."

His last comment earned him a sharp swap on the head from Quinn.

"Keep that kind of information to yourself king horny." The short haired blonde threatened before turning her attention to Brittany. "So what's the plan Britts? School is closing in on us. Have anything in mind before we head off to our last year of hell?"

Brittany chuckled at Quinn's description of senior year before taking some time to think about a good way to spent the rest of their evening.

"There's this band playing at Luck's tavern. Heard they where supper good but you know what happened to the last concert we went too." The tall blonde suggested before finishing off her beer.

Puck smiled devilishly at her form his spot on the couch. "He it wasn't my fault the lead singer got all up in my face! They guy was bad mouthing me and I so happened to have a free knuckle sandwich around soo…" He shrugged.

"Right well sounds like a plan to me. Ready?" Quinn looked around the room as she grabbed her key's from the table in front of her.

"I have to stay back." Finn grumbled to the group. "That car isn't going to fix itself. God knows I need the money."

"Have fun with that grease monkey. Call me when you get those parts k?" Brittany called over her shoulder before getting into Quinn's old Honda civic.

"Sure thing see you guys around." Finn waved goodbye to his friends before getting back to work.

The three friends drove off to the direction to Luck's tavern. Brittany lay comfortably across the back seats as she listened to Quinn and Puck talk about various things, from school and how they should spend the last few days of summer break. Brittany almost feel asleep to the familiarity of the situation until Quinn brought her back into reality.

"Hey Brittany what's with all these cars parked in front of the hospital?"

Brittany looked up from her position to get a glimpse of what her friends were looking at.

"Oh that's part of the reason I was late today. My dad wanted me to go to the welcoming ceremony for the new head doctor of the hospital or whatever."

"Isn't his name like something Lopez? He's like the brother of our principle or something like that." Puck chimed in the little information he had about what was going on. "Heard he moved all the way from L.A with his family. His daughter is coming to our school this never year actually."

"How the hell do you know that?" Quinn asked the boy curiously.

"My mom told me about it. Word about this kind of stuff gets around ya know."

"And you actually listened to her for once?" Quinn raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at the boy.

"I have selective hearing k? I only took the time to listen to her ranting cuz she mentioned a potentially new hotty coming our way."

"You twisted fuck. Can you think of anything other than girls?" Brittany muttered before returning to her previous position in the back seats.

"Say's the one who's fucked more girls these last few months then I have in the last year." Puck countered.

"Can't help that I'm a better lady charmer Puckasaur. Maybe you can learn a few things from me." The tall blonde teased her friend and the look on his face was more than worth it.

"Easy you two. No insult throwing until we get hammered alright?" Quinn cut into their little bickering game. "We have all night for you're little games."

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K so going out the night before what definitely not a good idea. Brittany woke up in an unfamiliar bedroom and the taste of heavy liquor on her tongue. Growning at the light that shown throw the worn out drapes across the room the blonde got out of the bed she had crashed on the night before and went on a search for her clothes that where cascaded all over the room. After tripping over a few bottles here and there she managed to find her demi shorts bra and loose tank top. Brittany took a peek at the girl that was still sleeping on the bed to make sure she was still asleep before heading for the door.

"Leaving already." A tired voice sounded from underneath the covers. "Thought we could get breakfast."

_So much for getting out unnoticed._

"Sorry but I don't do that kinda shit." Brittany spoke over her shoulder as she twister the door knob. Not waiting for a response she went in search for Puck. One of the only things she remembered for the night before was the he came with her to the same apartment. After a few minutes of searching the place the blonde spotted her friend laying on the living room floor half covered by some brunette chick he picked up the night before.

"Hey man whore. Wake up. Time to bolt." Brittany slapped him lightly across the face.

Muttering a response he slowly regained conscious while Brittany looked around for his things.

"Might need these." She handed him his stuff and told the mohawked boy she would wait for him outside the building.

Once she was outside Brittany pulled out a cigarette and lighter that she always kept in the back pocket of her shorts or jeans. Lighting the little stick she decided it would be a good time to check her phone.

Flipping though her messages Brittany had missed 3 calls from her father, a text from Quinn and another from an unknown caller. _Probably the chick I just ran out on._ She thought to herself.

She ignored her fathers voice mails and read over Quinn's message. Honestly she had no idea why he bothered to call her when she spent the night out. He knew where she was. She never lied to him about her whereabouts whether she was crashing at some random chicks place or at a friends place.

_Quinn [10:30am]: I went home after the concert Britts just in case you don't remember me telling you last night. Text back when you get this._

Brittan typed a quick reply back saying she's ok and that Puck was with her as she heard saw her mohawk friend exit the building.

"Up for some hang over grub?" He yawned pointing to the McDonald's down the street.

"Thought you'd never ask." Brittany smiled back at her friend and linked her arm through his.

The rest of the week was pretty much the same for the small group of friends. A party here a party there, booze, girls, food and chillen at the garage with Finn. Basically doing everything and anything they could before school start up again. It's not like they would stop this cycle once school was in session but there was something about the end of the summer vacay that pushed them to party a little harder then they usually would during other parts of the year. Might was well take advantage of it now right?

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There you have it flocks (:


	3. Yearbook

I'm really amazed at all the people that have taken a time to view, review, favourite and follow this story. Thank you every much and I hope you continue to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it (:

**Chapter three: Yearbook**

Early September 2011

It was the last weekend before school started and Santana had invited her old camp friends over for a mini get together before their senior year began. The last two weeks felt like the longest she's ever lived through. It was kind of overwhelming for the short brunette. Unpacking had been more of a hassle then packing and had taken a week and a half. It probably would have taken double that time if they didn't have help for her friends and uncle. Kurt as well of course. He was able to come down last weekend and help Santana finalize her bedroom decor. It took the full two days the he was there but hell it was worth it. Her room now looks ten times better then her old one back in L.A. Kurt had bought her two whole packs of indoor white Christmas lights that Santana later encircled her room with. It was probably the best room décor decision they've made together. Now every time she lays down on her bed back first and looks up at her walls it feels like she's sleeping under the stars. It's nice. She's never done it before so it's like the next best thing.

Beside her besty coming over the only other real high light of the last week of summer were all of her fathers 'amazingly entertaining' ceremony and brunches with the people he'd be working with this upcoming fall. It was a death sentence to have to sit through 3 hours of mindless chit chatr with a bunch of people she's never met before. It was beyond mentally exhausting but luckily Santana had her brother to entertain her. A.J was a life saver. He would always find some excuse that would allow both herself and the little guy to ditch the meeting for a few minutes. Thank God he was born with their Dad's charm or they would both be dead by now.

Now Santana lay spread out on one of the lounge chairs in her back yard chatting away with Sam and Blain as they awaited for their last two group members to show up.

"Jeez where are those girls?" Santana huffed in frustration checking the time on her phone. It's been 2 hours since Mercedes has told them she was on her way over with Tina in hand.

"Speak of the devil." Blain piped out as the door bell rang a second later.

"Be back in a second." Santana blurted out excitedly as she bolted into her house and to the front door. With one quick peak through blinds of the small side door window to check if it was her friends who were on the other side, the short brunette swiftly opened the door.

"Wheezy! Little Chang!" Santana threw both of her arms around the two girls standing on her font porch. "Took you long enough!"

"Santana girl you need to calm our tits before we fall over here." Mercadese tried to breath out.

"Sorry. I can't help myself." Santana apologized with a devilish grin taking a step back from her friends. "Come on I haven't seen you guys for a full year. Skype doesn't count."

The two girls have been out of the country for the last three weeks vacationing; Tina in the Bahamas and Mercedes in Europe. Under the circumstances Santana only thought it appropriate to squeeze them into the bone crunching hug. After helping her friends with their bags and introducing them to her family Santana led them to her back yard.

"You guys up for a swim?" The tanned girl asked her friends. Of course the guys didn't need to be told twice before jumping into the pool fully clothed. The three girls laughed at Sam and Blains dorkiness as they began to recite several scenes from Star Wars and Star Trek.

"Come on you two. Just one dip." Santana pleaded tugging at Tina's and Mercedes' wrists in attempt to get them to stand up.

"Hell no girl I aint getting in that water. Just got my hair done and school's two days away." Mercedes protested taking another sip of her Iced Tea.

"Same here Santana. Just got my nails done today. No can do." Tina agreed showing off her manicure as evidence.

The short brunette gave both her friends her best _you're fucking kidding me _face as she stared them down waiting for a better excuse other then the ones they just gave her.

"We knew this would happen so we brought you a little something something to make it up.." Tina reasoned with her not so impressed friend and pulled out a black book from her bag. "We brought this."

"A year book?" Santana asked in disbelief. How that was going to make up for their sissiness?

"Not quite….. More like the dirt behind all the people in it." Mercedes grinned widely.

Santana lifted an eyebrow in curiosity. On second though maybe it can make up for their sissiness.

"Ok now your talking my language. Open it up. Let's see what you got for me my gossip queens." The brunette ushered the two of them to tell her everything they know.

Taking a seat in-between her two friends Santana prepared herself for an earful of information in the next hours or so. Tina started off by naming all the people in their grade and what click they belonged too. As usual there were your jocks, cheerleaders, nerds/geeks, smarties, bitches and so forth. Once Tina covered those basic areas Mercaties went off picking out the most well known members of each group. Some chick by the name of Rachel Berry and a guy that went by the name of Jewfro were at the bottom of the high school food chain, which she could totally understand I mean who where's granny sweaters in one of the hottest states in the U.S?, while Noah Puckermen and his jock posy were at the top. As Mercedes continued down their grad list Santana noticed a picture missing in the P section.

'Hey who's this?" She ran her index finger to the only empty slot on the page. "Brittany Pierce?"

Her two friends followed her gaze and sighed in unison.

"A bad apple." Tina informed her.

"Yeah girl you best stay out of her way babe. Her little group isn't anything you want to get yourself into." Mercedes backed up Tina's claim. She exchanged a look with Tina before returning her attention to the book in front of them.

Santana's eyebrows nit in confusion. In a neighbourhood this nice how could there possible be someone like that living in it? "Why isn't her picture in here?"

"She's not really a regular student if you know what I mean. The girl barley comes to class on a weekly bases…." Tina trailed off.

Neither one of Santana's friends said much about Brittany after that last bit of information Tina shared with the short brunette except that the mystery girl hung out with Quinn Farbray, a fallen angle as Mercedes liked to describe her as, and the jock dude they told her about earlier, Noah Puckerman. Analyzing their pictures Santana could only described them using one word.

Punks.

Well the Noah dude could pass as both a frat boy and a punk but that Quinn chick with her short pink hair and lip piercing was definitely a punk. It was hard to believe that she us to be a cheerleader and head bitch a few years back. Tina told Santana that Quinn had a kid back in sophomore year and has been majorly messed up ever since. Something about her loosing her child in a miscarriage and not even knowing who the father was. There's the high school drama Santana was waiting to hear about.

_This is going to be some senior year._

It took another good hour before Santana got the scoop on everyone in her new graduating class. There was way to much information to take in in such as short time but she figured it really wouldn't really matter if she remembers all of it or not. It's not like she'll see any of them after they graduate anyway.

"Well that enough of that gossip queens. Time to hit the pool!" Sam yelled from the pool slowly jogging in their direction. The tall blonde haired boy looked at Santana mischievously before swiftly picking her up by the waist and lifting her over his shoulder.

"OH MY GOD SAM!" Santana screeched in surprise. "You're ficken cold as hell. Put me down!'

"What ever you say princess." Sam shrugged and tossed the small girl into the pool.

The cool salty water engulfed her hot body in a matter of seconds. Before Santana knew what was happening her instincts kicked in and brought her body to the surface.

"I'm going to kill you Evens!" She splashed the boy playfully as the rest of the group laughed at their two bickering friends.

The rest of their evening was spent laughing, eating and just plain old joking around until it was time for the five friends to part ways and head home. Santana said goodbye to each of one of them as they exited her house. Once they all left Santana cleaned up the remaining trash cluttered on the patio and ran up stairs for a quick shower before opening up Skype on her laptop to say hi to her friend Kurt.

"Hey there good looking. What's shacking?" Kurts face popped onto her screen a few minutes later.

"Nothing much baby boy. You?" Santana asked casually running around her room in search of her comb.

"Same old same old. Ready to start grad year at your new school?"

"God you wont believe the dirt Mercedes and Tina have on some of the people at this school."

"Oooh! Our gossip queens gave you the scoop eh? Don't be shy. Tell your favourite guy in the whole world what your getting yourself into." Kurt smiled brightly at her.

Letting out a short laugh at his obvious interest in the subject Santana slowly went over the information she had learned from her friends earlier that day. She's sure she missed more then half of the initial things Mercedes and Tina had told her but Kurt didn't need to know that. Besides the shorter version was less time consuming.

"Oh so their's a mystery girl involved?" Kurt probed.

"Yeah…." Santana crossed her legs in the chair she was sitting in. "The didn't say much about her except that she was bad news."

"Huh. Well I guess you'll find out soon enough right?"

"Depends. She's known to be a skipper so I probably wont even see her anyway." Santana filled in her friend on the little knowledge she had on this Brittany chick.

Kurt took a second to think about her response and just shrugged. "Let me know if you get any other good gossip news. I'm dying to hear more!"

"Sure thing Kurt." Santana chuckled at the boy.

And with that both friends said their goodbyes and signed off. Santana lay in her bed for a long while. She wasn't really sure why but the empty slot on the yearbook page was constantly popping up in her mind and her curiosity grew each time she lingered on the thought.

_Brittany Pierce_.

One person out of about 300 senior students wasn't in the yearbook. All the brunette could think of wondering was why?

The questing lingered in her mind for a while before she crawled out of bed and headed down the hall to her brother's room. She remembered that she had promised him a bed time story and if she didn't follow through Santana would never hear the end of it.

"Hey there champ. Picked a book yet?" She asked before entering his room.

"Well d-uhh." The little boy replied rolling his eye's and waving it above his head. "I picked it out ages ago."

"Alright alright. What will it be this time?"

"The usual." He smiled at his sister before handing her the book.

"Really?" Santana looked at her brother un-amused. "Again?"

She's pretty sure she has read Treasure Island over a billion times in the last year. For some reason A.J had this big obsession with pirates. They own all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies and a box load of documentaries on Black beard and she'd bitterly agree that she's sat through each one at least 3 times.

"Yup." He said shortly and snuggled into his sheets leaving no room for argument.

Santana took a deep breath and rested her body on the back board of A.J's bed. Flipping to the book marked page where she left off last time she's began to read the familiar story out loud. A few pages later Santana heard her brother soft snores and closed the book quietly. Kissing him goodnight and placing the novel back in its rightful spot on A.J's bookshelf, the brunette turn off the lights and headed to her room once again.

As she plopped down of her bed Santana let her body sink into the comfort of her mattress.

"God bless beds." She muttered into her pillow. Laying there Santana replayed the events of her summer. Worrying about moving, moving, hanging out, brunches, food, friends. It was a pretty good end of the summer considering. She thought it would have ended horribly when she was found out that she was moving but things turned out just fine. Know that her family is nicely settled into their new home it was time to face new obstacles which in her case was school. Santana has spent her whole life living in L.A and as a result she's grown up with a lot of the same people since kindergarten. But now things were going to be different. New faces, new teachers, new bitches and jocks to deal with. Santana let out a grown at that last part. She's never really had that problem before but she guessed Maria had a good point when she said that she was lucky to have some friends in Santa Barbara. So it's not like she doesn't have back up if any trouble arises. Besides her uncle runs the place. That had to mean something right?

Swatting her hand in front of her face in attempt to get ride of the worries of the next upcoming weeks Santana slid underneath her covers.

_Might as well take advantage of the last day of summer break with a good start._

And with that she drifted off into a dreamless slumber.


	4. The Tutor: Part One

**Chapter four: The Turor - Part One**

Early September 2011 - Two days later (Brittany's POV)

[8:00a.m]

_Crap. _

Brittany cursed at herself when she noticed the time on her alarm clock. Of all the days she chose to sleep in it had to be this one. The blonde mentally noted to remember to slap Puckerman later that day for convincing her that going out the night before school was a good idea. Brittany could still feel the buzz from the alcohol she had a few hours ago and the light headache that came along with it.

"Nothing a cold shower and some Advil wont cure." She grumbled to herself dragging he body out of bed and into the bathroom.

10 minutes later the blonde was dresses and bolting down the stairs, long board in hand. Rummaging threw the kitchen she searched for a snack to settle her growling stomach.

"You were suppose to be in class 10 minutes ago." She heard her dad's annoyed voice behind her.

Brittany didn't have to turn around to know that he was probably leaning against the kitchens island with both his arms crossed tightly across his chest and a look of disappointment on his face.

"Be happy I'm even going there on the first day." Brittany responded quickly. Picking up her backpack from the counter were she had left it earlier, the blonde passed her father, not bothering to say bye and walked out the front door.

Taking a few bits of the apple she picked up, Brittany set off towards school. The ride there was easy and traffic free thankfully. Being any later then she was would only mean more hell from her principle later on if he bothered to call her in. Once she got there Brittany picked up her term schedule from the receptionist.

"Good to see you're still around Miss Pierce." The old lady behind the main desk smiled up at her, recognizing the young girl from all of her past visits to Mr. Lopez's office.

"Wouldn't miss the first day for the world Mrs. Ross." Brittany's voice dripped with sarcasm.

After she got that sorted out Brittany set off to find her first period class: English with Mrs. Willington. The thirty year old woman had the blonde in one of her classes the year before and boy what fun that was. Lets just say by the end of the semester the woman hated her guts and truthfully she wouldn't want it any other way.

Walking down the familiar empty hallways Brittany found her class on the far right wing of the high school.

"So nice of you to join us Miss Pierce." The tall blonde's teacher greeted her a little to kindly for her liking once she stepped into the room. "Made it here before 9. I think that's a new record."

Brittany could feel everyone's gaze focus on her for a brief second before she heard them resume their usual chatter. The blonde gave Mrs. Willington a quick glare and took her usual seat at the back corner of the class.

"Thought you were to cool for school Lesbo?" Brittany heard some guy comment on the other side of the room. Looking up she saw Rick "The Stick" Douchebag smiling directly at her.

Brittany stuck out her tongue at the jock and gave him the middle finger. The class erupted in a fit of giggles and snickers at Brittany's childish comeback until the teacher clapped her hands to return the attention back to herself.

"Enough of that now. As I was saying…" Mr. Willington continued on with her usual ranting.

Brittany tuned out after the first few words and flipped her phone out to see whether Puck and Quinn had bothered to some to school today. Knowing Puck he was probably still passed out on his couch not even bothering to get his lazy ass out of the house after last night. The whole time she was texting her friends the blonde could feel her teachers eye's on her but the woman didn't bother to do anything to stop Brittany like she would have done the year before.

_Finally someone who's learned to say out of my business._

But there were a good number of other people watching her from a distance most likely making up stories as to why she bothered to even come today. It's not like she comes on a regular basis. As tempted as Brittany was to look up and tell her class mates to fuck off the blonde restrained herself. The least she could do is try to say out of the principles office on the first day. God knows she'll probably spend the rest of the year there.

Pulling out her aviators from the front pocket of her bag Brittany put them on and leaned back comfortably in her chair resting the side her head against the wall beside her desk. After fidgeting with her phone for a few more minutes the blonde check the time in hopes that class was somewhere near over. 9:02 a.m.

_Great. 28 more minutes to go. _Brittany groaned inwardly.

This was going to be a long week.

XXXXX

Five days later - Third period Friday

"I'm not impressed." Jose sighed looking over Brittany's file. "Getting kicked out of class twice, 4 missed classes, three lates, a detention! Brittany it's only been a week and you've already managed to get a suspension request for your second period history teacher."

Mr. Lopez threw the stack of papers onto his desk in frustration. Rubbing his eye's with his index finger and thumb he took in a deep breath to steady his nerves.

"Listen at this rate you're bound to be expelled before the end of the term." He tried to reason with the hard headed teen that sat slouched in the chair in front of him.

Brittany just shrugged her shoulders in response and continued vigorously chewing on the gum in her mouth blowing a bubble every know and then.

"We talked about you cleaning up your act last year Miss Pierce. It's a miracle that you even made it this fare without being held back." Jose began. "If you want to graduate with our class mates this year you better start working on you academics."

Why was he even trying? She thought she made it clear last year that she was a lost cause. Not even Doctor Phil couldn't convince her do a full 180 when it came to school. Even if he miraculously found a way to do it she wouldn't follow through with it because she simple didn't give a fuck.

"I told you last year that I don't have any intention on doing that. Honestly why do you even try? Let me flunk out! I don't care."

Mr. Lopez stood up straighter in his chair preparing himself for what he was about to say.

"You should care young lady and you very much know I can't do let you throw your future away Brittany. Ever since I've been principle at this school there has not been one student that has been expelled, that has flunked out or that has dropped out and I intend to keep it that way as long as I am sitting in this chair." He explained calmly.

"Brava." Brittany mockingly marvelled at his mini dialogue. "Yet another inspiring speech."

Mr. Lopez didn't flinch an inch when listening to the blondes comment but she can tell the man was fuming inside. His clasped hands tightened around one another as he eyed her impatiently. The tension in the room rose slightly, silence surrounding them.

"What do you need huh? A special teacher to follow you around all day? A few days off? New tutor?" He suggested after a long moment.

The tall blonde rolled her eye's at her principle. He had tried to set her up with a tutor last year and had gotten no where with it.

"Setting me up with Rachel Berry wasn't exactly the best move." Brittany reminded Jose. Not only did the girl talk way too much but she had this ridiculous obsession over Barbra Streisand, who, might she add, was the root of every conversation the tall blonde had with the girl. Every tutoring session that Brittany attended with the short brunette resulted in her nearly strangling the midget.

"Yes well… It was worth a try." Jose cleared his throat awkwardly recalling the past incidence. "Since you don't have anything in mind, yet again, I've went out of my way to get you a new tutor regardless for how the previous attempt went."

_Oh Boy._

"Not only will you be seeing her twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday after school, but you'll also be in the same classes as this student for the rest of the semester."

"You're kidding right?" Brittany's mouth slightly dropped in disbelief. Getting her a new tutor was one thing but switching up her whole schedule was another. Not that she carried about it but this was a whole new extreme. She didn't like the idea of having a person on her back for half of her day five times a week. "I don't need a babysitter. Who is this person anyway?"

"Someone I know will do a decent job. Or at least in your case try too do a decent job. Don't worry about it to much. I'm sure you'll get along with her just fine." Mr. Lopez assured her.

_The hell I will._ Brittany thought to herself. Their's no way the blonde was going to let some stranger push her around especially if it was someone of the likes of Rachel Berry.

Jose stood up from his seat and went to sit in the vacant chair beside Brittany. "Give it a chance. That's all I'm asked you to do. Your new schedule will be ready for you next Tuesday."

Brittany lifted an eyebrow at her principle. "And what about Monday?"

"Oh yes. You'll be suspended on that day. Thank you for reminding me. I've decided to grant your history teacher his wish." Mr. Lopez informed the girl. "Maybe you can use that time to have a little chit chat with your father. I'm sure he'd be glad to know what you've been up too."

_Fan -fucking-tastic_. Just what she needed. Another gruellingly time consuming discussion with her dad. Not exactly how she was planning her weekend. .

"Can I go now?" Brittany huffed out visibly annoyed. " I've got places I have to be."

"Certainly Miss Pierce." Mr. Lopez waved her off towards the door.

Just as she was about to walk out Jose called after her. "And Brittany," he waited for the blonde haired teen to turn around before smiling at her brightly, "see you next Tuesday."

With a muffled sure she left his office without saying another word.

Once the door clicked shut Jose reached for the phone stationed on his desk and dialled in the receptionist number. A few rings later Mrs. Ross picked up greeting him kindly.

_Good afternoon Mr. Lopez . What can I do for you?_

He couldn't stop the grin that was slowly tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Do you mind calling down Santana Lopez for me dear? A new tutoring position just opened up."

XXXXXXXX

Thoughts? (:


	5. The Tutor: Part Two

**Chapter four: The Tutor - Part Two**

30 minutes later - Friday afternoon

"You can't be serious?" Santana gapped at her uncle.

"Afraid not kiddo." Jose pursed his lips together flipping through the hill of papers on his desk.

The tanned girl leaned back in her chair ruffly taking in what her uncle just told her. Up until now her first week of school had been moving along smoothly. She's been able to befriend a good number of people in each of her classes and managed to get along pretty well with all her teachers. When she had a few minutes to spare, Santana would meat up this Mercedes and the rest of the group in between classes, during lunch and occasionally after school. Everything had gone better then she anticipated well except of this.

"So let me get this straight." Santana waved her right hand in front of her face to get Jose's attention. "You want me to tutor this random dude/chick? Twice a week? Ever week? For the rest of the semester? _And_ your switching them into each of my classes?"

If she didn't know the man sitting in front of her any better Santana would have thought that he had lost his mind.

"Precisely." Mr. Lopez said simply unfazed by his nieces slowly rising temper.

"Right. And for what reason exactly?" Santana questioned the older man. "You can't just tell some random person that I'll be their tutor without passing the idea by me first. I don't even know who you're setting me up with!"

Sighing Jose put down the pen he had been writing with for the last 10 minutes.

"In my defence I didn't mention who you were during the whole conversation. However, your right. I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about this earlier. It was one of those in the moment kind of decisions." Mr. Lopez tried to explain his actions as he felt Santana's hard gaze piercing right through him. "But since I knew that you've tutored students before and gotten a good review from the parents of those students, I thought that you would be the perfect person for the job."

"True. I'm pretty damn good at it but I didn't do it for free." Santana rolled her eye's at her uncle. She had taken up tutoring as a little side job when her father refused to raise her monthly allowance sophomore year. It was good easy cash that she used to blow on clothes and shoes during weekends when she went out with Kurt.

_A Lopez has to learn how to appreciate ever cent they earn. _Antonio's deep voice echoed in her head. Santana smiled at herself. _That man._

"I figured you might say that. Sooo…" Jose drew out the word a little longer than necessary. "I'm willing to pay you double your usual hourly rate ."

The brunette sat across from Jose and contemplated whether she should take her uncles offer or not. Deciding it was too soon to give him her final verdict Santana gave him a slight shrug. He was going to have to do a lot more than just raise her salary to convince her to go through with this. After all it wasn't just a few after school sessions a month that Santana will be expected to attended.

"Playing hard to get I see?" Santana's uncle smirked at her. "I know how much you like a challenge Santana and that's why I think you'll like the person I set you up with."

The older man stood up and ventured to his office window with his hands resting steadily on his hips. The brunette watched him tentatively slightly worried who he had in mind. God if it was that Puck guy she ran into the other day Santana was ready to bolt out of her uncles office as soon as the boys name leaves Jose's lips. She swore the boy had a brain the size of a pea and that mohawk he tried to pull off didn't help to convince her otherwise. Shifting in the chair she was sitting in Santana waited for her uncle to continue.

"Her name's Brittany Pierce."

The tanned girls eyebrows shot up at the mention of the familiar name. That had to be the last person Santana was expecting to be paired up with.

"You've hear about her already?" Jose asked his niece noticing her immediate change in demeanour.

"Rumours spread pretty quickly around this school." Well that and she so happened to have two of the worlds biggest gossip Queen as her friends.

"So they do." Mr. Lopez paused for a minute before posing his last question. "You in?"

Fidgeting with a loose string handing off of her sleeve Santana took a moment to think over the situation. She can't deny that she'd been wondering who this Brittany chick was since Mercedes and Tina brought over that year book the weekend before. This would probably be her only chance to figure out who the girl was. Santana's curiosity has always been a great pro and con in her personality and she knew it. By the looks of it so did her uncle.

"I'll do it." Santana finally voiced her decision. "But under one condition."

Jose rose an eyebrow at her in response.

"I get a weeks advance for the first two sessions."

Mr. Lopez let out a loud bellowing laugh and shook his head at his niece.

"I don't think that'll be a problem."

XXXX

The following week - Monday (Brittany's POV)

The weekend flew by a lot quicker then Brittany had expected. Most of it was taken up by her fathers usual ranting and criticism on how she carried herself threw life. Of course it only resulted in another heated argument between the two Pierces and Brittany slamming her bedroom door in front of her fathers face. To avoid another never ending battle with the man Brittany set off to Finn's place early Monday morning. His garage might have been run down and ridiculously messy but it had served as her second home these last 2 years since her mother passed away. Hell its been her only home since then.

Ridding down the familiar road the tall blonde waved to her tall friend who was already working on the cars in his lot.

"Mornin' grease monkey. Up early enough?" Brittany greeted Finn.

"Got to make a living ya know." He smiled at her wiping his grease covered hands on a rag. "What are you doing here? Don't you have school today?"

"Suspended." The blonde informed her friend as she sat down on her longboard.

"Already? It's only the second week of school Britts." Finn looked at her in concern. He knew she wasn't really the scholarly type but he always thought his friend could try a little harder in school.

"Don't start Finn." Brittany warned. "You sounded just like my father right there."

The older man rose his hands in the air and returned to his work without commenting on the matter any further. Brittany loved that about Finn. If she told him that she wasn't interested in talking about something he would drop the subject in a heart beat. No questions asked.

"Oh by the way. I wanted to show you something last Friday but you bolted on me before I got the chance." Finn pointed over his shoulder.

Wondering what it could be Brittany stood up for her board and followed him into the garage. When they were both standing beside a cloth covered car Finn gestured for Brittany to stay where she was before running to the font of the vehicle.

"1..2..3! Tada!" The tall man yelled as he ripped off the raggy cloth.

"Holy shit…" Was all Brittany managed to say when she saw what was hidden under it.

"I know eh?" Finn marvelled at the sight in font of them. "The last few parts came in early last week and instead of calling to tell you about them I decided to surprise you with the finished product. What do you think? Not bad for an amateur mechanic right?"

The blonde wasn't sure whether she should run over to her friend and embrace him in a bone crushing huge, scream in excitement or both. After two whole months of waiting it was finally done. The broken down bright red mustang that she'd been obsessing over ever since she bought it a year ago was parked in front of her looking nothing like it use too. Instead it looked ten times better. Like she had went back 40 some years ago and bought it when the car first came out.

Walking over to the passenger side window Brittany's jaw dropped at the sight of the interior. The once old black faded leather seats were now fully refurbished, the broken clutch was replaced, and the nasty coffee stain that Brittany could never completely get ride of on the passengers side carpet was gone.

"Finn… I-I this… I mean." Brittany struggled to form a full sentence to thank her friend.

"I'll take that was a yes." Finn laughed at the tall blondes dumbfounded expression.

Not trusting herself to speak another word Brittany took a few steps in her friends direction and wrapped her arms around the man's midsection squeezing him into a tight hug.

_Best grease monkey ever._

"Glad you like it." Finn mumbled hugging her back.

Moments later they pulled apart and Finn began fishing for something in his right pocket.

"I think you might need these." The tall man smirked while dangling a key from his index finger.

Rolling her eye's at him Brittany reached for them but was taken back when Finn yanked the keys away.

"Nope. Not yet."

Brittany's eye brows knit in confusion.

"What?"

"I'm not giving you these key's until you promise me something." Finn began to explain.

"Okay…" Brittany waited patiently for her friend to continue.

"I want you to promise me that you'll try to bump up your grades this year." Finn held up his free hand to the blondes face to stop her from trying to weisel her way out of the conversation. "Puck told me about the new tutor your principle assigned to you for the term and I know how things went down last year with that Berry girl but I want you to give it another shot."

This was so not fair. Telling her to get her butt into gear was one thing. Using her car to bribe her into it was a whole different ball park. Brittany had figured that she would have to repay Finn in someway for all the time and money he had spent on her car over the summer but this was not how she pictured doing so.

"But…"

"Nuh-uh."

"Come on…"

"Not happening."

"Please!"

"Nice try Britt but the answer is still no." Finn spoke a little more sternly. There was no way Brittany was going to get herself out of this mess.

"Look if you wont do it for yourself at least do it for me. I know high school's a pain, I've been there, but do you really want to end up like me? Working a dead beat job to pay the rent just because you didn't put in the extra effort and studying in senior year?"

Brittany looked up at Finn sighing in defeat. "No."

"Then graduate." He paused. "What'll it be Britts?"

Grinding her teeth together the blonde prepared herself for what she was about to say. May God have mercy on her for the rest of this semester because it's going to take everything in her power to go through with her final decision.

"Fine. I promise I'll give it a try." Brittany hissed out.

Satisfied with her answer Finn smiled at his friend and tossed Brittany her key's.

"I better see you walking across that stage in June."

"If I'm still alive." Brittany groaned out.

Finn gave her a light pat on the back.

"You'll do just fine chap and since you've got nothing else to do for the rest of the day….can you do me another favour?"

Brittany stared at him in worry. _Please not another one._

"_Mind helping me fix up those cars in the lot?"_

"_Now that's something I don't have a problem doing."_

_XXXX_

_I know you're all anxiously waiting for Santana and Brittany to finally meet but I had to write out the basics before I start writing that part of the story. Don't worry. Their first meeting is just a chapter away ;)_

_Also I wanted too apologize for all the spelling mistakes. I tend to miss a good amount of them even after I've proof read the chapters. Try to ignore them when you can._

_As usual don't hesitate to review (:_


	6. Saying Hello to Reality

**Chapter five: Saying Hello to Reality**

The next day - Tuesday morning (Brittany's POV)

It's been ages since Brittany had arrived to school this earlier. Instead of waking up like she usually would around 8 - 8:30 a.m she had gotten up at 7:15 that morning. Even her father gave her a weird look before she left the house a few minutes ago. It was clear that he wasn't expecting her to take this this new tutoring thing seriously but a promise is a promise.

_What did I get myself into_? She kept on asking herself.

Sleep deprived and slightly annoyed at herself for forgetting her coffee on her kitchen counter Brittany pulled into the schools parking lot. Parking her car in the most deserted area she could find the blonde grabbed her bag from the passengers seat and headed towards the school.

Flipping her phone out she checked the time - 7:54 a.m. Well it might not have been the best time to come in at but it was certainly an improvement for last week. A few minutes later Brittany walked into the main office.

"Hello there dear. Good to see up here so early." Mrs. Ross greeted her with a small smile. "How are you?"

"Never been better." Brittany replied with a yawn.

Chuckling the elderly woman handed her a piece of paper with her new schedule on it.

"Mr. Lopez in expecting you by they way. You can walk right in as soon as your ready."

The tall blonde thanked the receptionist and headed down the hall that led her to Jose's office. Once she was standing in front of the large wooden door Brittany placed her hand on the door knob and turned it slowly not giving herself a chance to think over her decision. It was now or never.

XXXXX

(Santana's POV)

Tapping her foot impatiently Santana anxiously waited for Brittany to walk into her uncles office. She had been sitting there in silence for the last 15 minutes with Jose staring down the clock on his desk.

_7:59 a.m_

The brunette let out a muffled grunt. Class was about to start any second now and there was still no sign of the other girl.

"Honestly is she even going to bother coming in today? The moment that minute hand strikes 8 I'm out of here." The brunette blurted out annoyed.

"She'll be here. Any second now…" Was all Jose said not taking his eye's of the clock.

As if on que Santana and her uncle heard the office door open. Turning their heads towards the sound in walked a tall blonde girl Santana haden't seen before. The brunette couldn't get a good look at her face thanks to the sea of wavy un-kept hair that kept on covering it perfectly from her angle. The girl wore a pair of simple jean demi short shorts, black laced bando that was accompanied by a loose white tank top that had the Beatles Abbey Road logo on the font of it and blue/black Nike high tops. The skin on her left arm was inked with a floral designed sleeve tattoo which ran down from her sun kissed shoulder to her wrist. There seamed to be another much smaller tattoo on the inside of her right arm her but Santana couldn't make out its design.

Looking up at her uncle Santana raised an eyebrow at the man when she saw his facial expression. Jose had a slight smirk plastered on his face as if to tell her "I told you so".

"Good to see you could make it in today Miss Pierce." Mr. Lopez greeted the girl. "Have a seat."

The blonde looked at Jose for a brief second before closing the door behind her and sitting in the vacant seat beside Santana not paying the brunette any mind.

"Right. Now that we're all here Brittany I'd like you to meet my niece Santana Lopez. Santana this is Brittany Pierce the girl that you'll be tutoring for the remainder of the term." Mr. Lopez waved his hand back and forth between the two teens sitting in front of him.

Finally acknowledge Santana's existence Brittany turned her head towards the brunette. Feeling the blondes eye's analyzing her Santana straightened up in her chair and turned her head to her left to meet Brittany's wandering gaze. A pair of ocean blue eye's met her own dark brown and for the first time since the girl beside her had entered the room Santana could see her face clearly. The blonde had a nose ring on her left nostril and another piercing on her right eyebrow. There was no trace of make up on Brittany's face except for the lightly applied eyeliner around her eye's. The rest of her face was lightly tanned with a few freckles scattered around her cheek bones and nose.

_Cute..._ Santana mentally noted lost in her own thoughts.

After hearing all the nasty rumours about the girl sitting next to her the brunette thought she would be dealing with some hard core punk. But now that she finally met Brittany the face didn't match the accusations. Not at all.

Santana felt her stomach flip when she realized that they've been staring at each other longer then would have been deemed necessary. It wasn't until her uncle cleared his throat awkwardly that the two girls broke eye contact.

Brittany was the first to break the silence.

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

Santana and Jose exchanged looks as they watched the blonde pick up her bag and head towards the door. Muttering something along the lines of "I'll see you in class" to the brunette before completely leaving the room.

"Told you she'd be a challenge." Jose reminded his niece.

"No kidding."

Maybe she misjudged how much trouble this girl was going to be. There was so much more to Brittany besides her pretty face. Santana was just worried that it might be more bad than good.

Saying bye to her Uncle the tanned girl went to her locker to pick up her books and headed to her first period class. Greeting her teacher with a slight node Santana scanned the room for a particular blonde. Noticing Brittany sitting in the farthest possible seat for the front the short brunette rolled her eye's and walked towards her sitting in the seat directly to the right of the blonde.

Santana earned a questioning look from Brittany as she opened up her notebook and began copying the notes that were on the board.

"Umm.. What are you doing?"

Santana turned her head to face the girl.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm sitting. And writing."

"No shit. But why here? There's like a million other free seats in this classroom." Brittany gestured at the desks in front of them.

The brunette lifted a questioning brow at the blonde.

"Point being?"

If Brittany was worried that she was going to be seen with her that would be ridiculous. Santana never cared much for what other people though of her. If they liked her they liked her. If they didn't well fuck em. She wasn't going to die if a few people she barely knew rejected her. Especially not in this school.

Brittany shrugged at Santana and returned her attention to the front of the class. They didn't say a word to each other for the remainder of that class or the next or the next. Their hour and a half session after school went be the same way. The next day came along and the same cycle started again continuing on for the remainder of the week. By the end of fourth period on Friday Santana couldn't take this weird silence between them. She had tried on several occasions to strike up a conversation with Brittany to somehow break the ice between them but the blonde would always respond with an one word answers leading the conversation nowhere. There was no way she was going to go on like this for the next few months.

As soon as the final bell rang Santana stopped the blonde before she could bolt on her, cornering Brittany in the hallway outside their last class.

"What?" Brittany looked at her annoyed trying to figure out a way to get around the brunette.

Not wasting a second of the time she had the blondes attention for Santana let her tongue do its thing.

"Look here blondie. You might not like me for whatever reason and that's fine but we're going to be stuck together for the rest of this God damn semester whether you like it or not. So instead of being so fucking stuck up all the time why don't you try to actually talk to me for more than ten seconds?"

Brittany's look of annoyance turned into one of surprise. It was clear that the blonde didn't have many people confront her in the past especially not one of their school mates. They were probably too scared to even approach the blonde let alone talk to her.

Smirking at herself triumphantly Santana waited for an answer. Sometimes you had to fight sass with sass and in this case it seemed to pay off.

"If I say yes will you get off my back?" Brittany finally responded regaining her usual composure.

"Yes." Santana said simply.

"Fine. Than yes. Now can you move out of my way?" Brittany grumbled out impatiently.

Moving aside Santana let the blonde pass. She stood there in the same spot until she saw Brittany disappear behind a corner. Smiling at herself a bit Santana headed to her locker with an extra skip in her step. Her uncle Jose wasn't kidding when told her this was going to be challenging but she had a feeling things would work out eventually. She just won one battle but the war has just started.

Ginning widely the tanned girl dropped her books off at her locker and shut the metal door in one fellow swoop.

_Bring on the gunfire._

XXXX

(Brittany's POV)

This whole week had been ridiculously tiring. Not only physically though but mentally too. All Brittany wanted to do now was head home sleep, eat and sleep again. This whole getting to school on time thing was a bit to much for her to handle all at once. Letting out a long sigh Brittany pulled out her car keys and headed towards to parking lot.

As she got closer to her car Brittany noticed two people leaning against her mustangs trunk. Recognizing the familiar pink hair and mohawk Brittany walked towards her car a little bit quicker.

Quinn was the first one to see her and greet her while Puck kept in gaze on his phone probably getting ready to text her to see where she was.

"Don't you dare scratch the paint on my car Puckerman." Brittany warned her friend.

Looking up Puck smiled at her and removed his weight from the cars trunk.

"My bad babe."

"What do you want?" Brittany looked at him suspiciously. Puck never hung around her car unless he wanted something. It was usually only her and Quinn that hung out Friday evening's.

"What I can't stop by and see how my favourite Lesbo is doing?" He put on a fake offended expression.

Rolling her eye's at Puck Brittany unlocked her car and let her friends in. The small trio slipped into their seats, Brittany in the drivers side Quinn in the passengers and Puck in the back. They got comfortable before they continued with their conversation.

"Okay so maybe I'm not here to say hey." The mohawked boy admitted pocking his head through the space between the two girls sitting in front of him.

Brittany looked over in his direction in response before turning her car on.

"I couldn't help but notice your little exchange with Santana Sexy Lopez just now. She cornered you pretty good back there." Puck commented on the incident.

"Santana Sexy Lopez? Really? Sometimes I think your dick thinks for you."

"Always." Puck acknowledged his friends observation. "But that's beside's the point. She got pretty fired up for a second there when she was talking to you."

Brittany knew Puck was indirectly interrogating her right now and Quinn wasn't even bothering to intervene obviously waiting silently to see where the boy was going with this.

"So? What are you trying to get at?"

"I think what he's trying to get at is that you've been a total bitch to her the whole week." Quinn finally spoke up. Puck nodded in agreement and let the pink hair girl continue. "Clearly she's finally fed up with your bullshit."

No fuck. No one had ever gotten in her face like the brunette did that wasn't an adult or one of her close friends. After Santana's little confrontation Brittany admitted to herself that she felt kind of bad for giving the girl the cold shoulder since the day they met but she didn't feel bad enough to do anything about it.

"I still don't get why your bringing this up." Brittany lied. She knew exactly where this was headed now and she didn't like the looks of it one bit. These mini interventions she's been having in the last week have been killing her internally. First Mr. Lopez (again), then Finn and Santana and now her two best friends. She was use to having one every few weeks not a shit load at once.

"What we're trying to get at," Puck began. "is that you should stop being such a stubborn bitch around her before she runs off on you like Rachel did last year."

"Exactly. You promised Finn that you'd try remember." Quinn reminded her. "So far you're not going a very good job. You owe that guy a lot more than this. It's the least you can do."

Brittany groaned internally. There was that similar guilty feeling she felt a second ago but this time it was a hundred times worse. Did they really need to bring this up? Like right now as she was trying to take a brake from all this school stuff.

_Great timing guys._

"Sure. Okay. Fine. Just drop it already. What's with everyone telling me what to do lately?" Brittany posed the questions more to herself than to her two friends.

"Because it's about time you stopped being a self centered prick to the people who are trying to help you." Quinn answered her.

"Well I never asked for it…."

She wasn't sure why people were constantly getting in her business but it was getting awfully annoying. Frankly however she didn't have the energy to tell them to screw off anymore. She was tired of it to be honest. Maybe it was finally time to let go of the mess of the thing she called her life up until now and move onto something better. That's something that she's wanted for so long now but she could never fined a way out of this slump because it was so much easier to just running away. From her problems, for the past, from everything. Eventually though she knew she had to stop running and now seemed to be the time to do just that.

"Too bad Britts. You're getting it anyways." Puck stated leaning back into his seat dismissing the topic. "Now how about we hit the beach? Anyone up for skinny dipping?"

Shaking herself out of her inner turmoil and back into the present Brittany laughed at her friend and turned onto the highway heading towards their new destination. As much as fun as it was getting lost in the cluttered mess that was her head right now the blonde decided to get lost in a different kind of fun. She had all weekend to deal with a bigger bitch than herself. Her name was life.

XXXX

Thoughts? (:


	7. My Apologies

**Chapter six: My Apologies**

The next day - Saturday Evening

"Puck this is such a fucking stupid idea. We're going home." Brittany turned to start the engine but the mohawked boy had somehow managed to take the keys out of the ignition before she had a chance.

The two friends have been parked across the Lopez residence for the last 15 minutes bickering over whether Brittany should or shouldn't apologize to Santana about her behaviour this last week. Puck had suggested the idea earlier and offered that they go down to the short brunettes house after they're hang out that evening. For some odd reason Brittany had agreed to his idea in a heart beat and now there she was mere meters away from Santana's house at 11 o'clock at night half buzzed with her friend yelling at her to grow some balls. Brittany thought she would have learned to never agreed to do anything when she was drunk, especially if Puck was within a 30 foot radius of her but no. Now she's stuck in this God forsaken mess.

"Nope. I think ima keep these till you get back." Puck slurred at his friend and pointed to the house on the other side of the street.

"Puckerman I'm not getting out of this damn car. I can't believe you got me to think that this was a good idea. Now give me my keys you man whore!" Brittany clawed at the boys left arm in attempt to reach her keys that were being dangled from the passenger side window.

"You're lousy at apologizing. Stop being such a pussy."

"I have no problem with apologizing to her. I have a problem with randomly showing up at her house in the middle of the night. How do you even know where she lives you creep? What the hell am I suppose to say to her when she answers the door? _Oh hey I got your address off my fucktared of a friend Puck. Can I come in? _NO!" Brittany all out yelled at her friend.

"Jeez what's with all you woman being such spazzes. I have my sources okay and technically it's not even midnight yet so quit your fussing and stop trying to claw my eyes out already." Puck tried to defend himself.

After a few more minutes of arguing and Brittany unsuccessfully trying to snatch her keys back from Puck the two friends grew tired of their fighting and settled back into their seats.

"If … you don't… give me my… keys back.. I'm going to call…. Quinn." Brittany breathed out heavily waving her hand in front of Pucks face.

The mohawked boy straightened out in his chair abruptly. "You wouldn't!"

For some odd reason he had this weird fear of Quinn. Brittany never really understood why, sure the short pink haired girl knew how to be pretty vicious when she had too be but Brittany was never scared of her. She actually found it kind of cute but Puck was terrified of her. Luckily for Brittany that strange phobia of his always came in handing in situations like these.

"Oh yes I would. You know it. Now had them over." The blonde reached for the keys with one hand and pulled out her cell phone with another to let Puck know that she wasn't messing around.

"Alright! Alright! You win. Here." He throw her the keys. "Drop the phone will you? You're making me nervous."

"Hmm… I don't know. I think I'll keep it out just in case you try anything else." Brittany waved her phone in her hands as she turned on her car. No way was she taking anymore chances with Puck tonight..

"Now how about I take you home? I think you've had a little too much fun for one day."

Grumbling Puck slouched further in his chair.

"You suck you know that?"

"Yeah but you love me anyways." Brittany grinned.

XXXXX

Same Time - Saturday Evening (Santana's POV)

It was your average Saturday night at the Lopez house. Santana was lounging on her sofa in her living room with her two best girl friends and brother watching old chick flicks, gossiping and eating popcorn. Well it was mostly A.J who was eating the popcorn while the three other girls engrossed themselves in the movie they were currently watching.

"Is high school really like Mean Girls?" A.J asked the girls from his spot on the floor not taking his eye's off the screen.

"Not quite but its pretty darn close." Mercedes answered the little boys question.

A.J turned around to face Santana and her friends with a bit of a scowl on his face.

"Well that's stupid. Who would name there kid Glen Coco? I mean that's just silly."

"Okay little rascal time for bed." Antonio's voice sounded from the kitchen behind them. "You're up waaay past your bed time. Scat."

"But Papa… I'm not tired." Santana's brother whined dragging his feet towards the stairs.

"Listen to your father A.J. Up you go." Maria appeared from the stairwell.

"You too Santana. As soon as that movie's over head on upstairs. Night girls." The older woman waved at the group sitting on the couch.

"I think I'm going to go too." Mr. Lopez announced kissing his daughters forehead. "Night guys. Don't forget to clean up."

With a last set of goodbye's the three Lopez's ventured up the stairs.

"God I love you're parents." Tina commented grapping the popcorn bowl from the floor.

"Same here." Mercedes chimed in. "But now that they're gone we can finally get to the hard core gossip!"

Santana laughed at her level of enthusiasm. After a few minutes the movie was forgotten and the three girls started giggling hysterically at the stories that Mercedes had heard from other people over the last two weeks. Most of it was about what had happened to the people at theri school over the summer and who had hooked up with who during that time.

"I cant believe she did that!" Santana gasped trying to control her laughing fit.

"Yeah girl it's true. Never go swimming butt naked in your neighbours pool in the middle of the day or shit is bound to go down." Mercedes remarked.

After they calmed down from they're giggle attack Tina turned her attention to Santana sitting beside her.

"What about you Lopez? Hear any good stories lately?"

"Yeah. How's tutoring that Brittany chick going?" Mercedes asked out of curiosity. Santana hadn't really talked about it to her friends since she had met the blonde on Monday.

The short brunette sighed heavily looking between her two friends.

"Well on the plus side she showed up to all our classes this week, surprisingly not being late for any of them, but on the down side she can be a real bitch. Hopefully that'll change soon since I talked to her about it yesterday." Santana filled in her friends on the subject.

"Mmm… No surprise there. That girls been in the ruff for a long time. It's a miracle that you managed to be able to take her shit for a whole week. Most people would have given up by now."

"Mercedes is right. You're lucky to have not gotten socked in the face like that Rachel girl last year by now." Tina backed up her friends clam.

Santana looked at them in confusion.

"What do you mean she's been in the ruff for a long time? So she wasn't always like this?"

Tina and Mercedes looked at each other awkwardly. Clearly this was a topic that wasn't really talked about often which was kind of weird in Santana's opinion. Nothing was off limits for these girls.

"Did I miss something?" Santana asked curiously.

" We don't think it's really our place to talk about it." Tina spoke up breaking the awkward silence that was creeping in on them.

"Since when is anything _not _in your place to talk about?"

"True… this is different though…" Mercedes began to explain but tailed off.

"Okaaay…" Santana drew out looking at her friends with a newly sparked curiosity. Every time someone brings up Brittany in a conversation another unanswered question arises.

"I think you should just talk to Brittany about it. If she's even willing to go there that is." Tina dismissed the topic getting off the couch and heading to the kitchen to put the bowl of popcorn in the sink .

Santana rose her eyebrow at Mercedes but the girl wasn't looking in her direction obviously not wanting to talk about the subject either.

_Was it that bad? _Santana asked herself.

What could have possibly happened to Brittany that neither of her friends would be willing to talk about it? The question boggled about in her mind for a little while until the credits of the movie started rolling on the screen and it was time to head up stairs. Cleaning up the rest of the mess around the living room the three friends crashed for the night in Santana's room. While Mercedes and Tina slept peacefully in their sleeping bags Santana steered in hers unable to get her mind too rest.

_Would you just shut up! _The brunette internally screamed at her mind covering her head with a pillow in an attempt to steady her thoughts. But it was no use. They just came flooding back in bucket loads.

This was going to be a long night.

XXXXX

Mid September - Monday Morning (Brittany's POV)

Brittany patiently waited for Santana to show up at school. Class was going to start any minute and the shorter girl was nowhere to be seen. Leaning against the brunettes locker the blonde looked down the semi full hallways with a nervous twitch. After she had dropped Puck off at his house on Saturday night the tall blonde had been thinking of ways on how too apologize to the other girl. It wasn't easy. She hadn't done anything like this in a while. Hell she spent most of her Sunday evening talking in front of her mirror while she was brushing her teeth going over different ways she could go through with this. Feeling the sudden urge to bolt out of there Brittany bit her tongue at the familiar feeling and pushed it away. No. This was something she had to do.

_Time to start over. Or at least try too that is._

Hearing a pair of foot steps coming in her direction Brittany looked up from the spot on the floor she had been staring at. There Santana was half way down the hall approaching the blonde with a confused and slightly amused look on her face.

"What are you doing here?" She asked once she was close enough for Brittany to hear her clearly.

"Hey." The blonde pushed herself off of the other girls locker.

"Hi." Santana kept on eyeing her from the side as she opened up her locker to grab her books.

They fell into a weird silence for a few seconds before Brittany remembered what she was doing there in the first place.

_Shit right. Just like you rehearsed it Britt. One word at a time._

"Umm. I-I came here to apologize for last week. I wasn't exactly what you would call welcoming."

"That's for sure." Brittany heard Santana mumble under her breath.

"Right so I'm sorry about everything… umm"

Santana's gaze grew softer but remained tentative and cautious.

"So you don't hate me?" She asked sceptically with a raised eyebrow.

Brittany's eye's widened in shock. Did she really make it seem like she did? Well yeah she kind of did.

"No!" She yelled out a little too loudly. In truth Brittany real liked Santana. She wasn't like any of the girls at her school. The brunette had some spunk in her if that's what you would call it and wasn't afraid to show it. If something bothered her she wouldn't let it go un-noticed unlike all the preppy stuck up girls at their school who would just say shit behind the blondes back to make themselves feel better. "…no. It's just that I'm not use to this whole thing.. You know…"

"You mean being nice to people?"

"You could put it that way I guess." Brittany pursed her lips together. " So are we good?"

Santana took a minute to think about the question before giving the taller girl an answer.

"Yeah I think we are." The brunette looked up at her.

Brittany let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding and smiled at the other girl.

"Awesome. How about I walk you to class then? Don't want to be late." Brittany sarcastically joked about the last part. She could still really care less about being late or not but every time she though about it Finn came to mind. _Don't let him down. _Her conscience reminded her constantly.

Santana chuckled at Brittany and bumped the taller girls shoulder with her own.

"You don't have to walk me there. But if you insist…." The tanned girl cocked her head in the direction of their classroom signalling for the blonde too lead the way.

Brittany smiled for the second time that morning and started walking down the hall Santana trailing only a step behind. Today was going to be a good day.

XXXXX

I do not by any chance support driving under the influence. In my defence she only had like two beers prior to getting behind the wheel but still…. It was only to emphasis Brittany's reckless behaviour.

Hope you enjoyed it anyways (:


	8. Changing Tides

Hello there (: Sorry for the delayed update. I know you're all use to quick updates but this chapter took a while to get together. It's the longest one that I've ever written for any one of my fanfics but I hope you find the wait for it worthwhile. Enjoy (:

**Chapter seven: Changing Tides**

The three weeks later - Early October

The last few days have flown by faster than Santana had expected. Ever since Brittany's apology the month before the brunette had gotten along a lot better with the blonde. The two spent most of their day with each other going over homework, studying and attending their weekly tutoring sessions in the schools library. To Santana's relief Brittany was actually trying to do work and write detailed notes in each of their classes. The brunette would often look over to where the blonde sat beside her and lightly chuckle at herself when she saw how concentrated the girl was on her work. Brittany's nose and eyebrows would be tightly scrunches up in focus and frustration. It was even more amusing when the girl started cussing at herself whenever she got stuck on a Spanish or Calculus question. That's usually when Santana would step in and help her out before she started flipping tables. Other than the occasional mini tantrums Brittany would throw she was rather smart considering her poor academic record in the last 2 years. Santana was taken back when the blonde dominated her in English and History. Sure the brunette was pretty good at those two subjects but Brittany was on a whole new level. While the tanned girl was only on her second body paragraph of her essay Brittany had finished the whole thing ages ago and was proof reading and editing hers. She would even take the time to help Santana out. The shorter girl often laughed at this. This tutoring thing had become more of a two way thing then a one way thing in such a short period of time.

Aside from their study sessions, it had became a habit of Brittany's to wait at Santana's locker every morning. Soon after she started waiting for the other girl at the end of lunch break and after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the beginning the brunette would throw questioning looks at Brittany trying to figure out why she kept up her morning greetings but later just decided to let it be. Santana enjoyed the extra company so why question the other girl.

Now the two girls were sitting in the all to quite school library quizzing each other for their Calculus test that they had the next day. Santana sat across from Brittany, her books scattered all over the table in front of her along with a few of the blondes notes.

Chewing on the eraser tip of the pencil in her mouth the tanned girl waited for the taller girl to answer the question she just posed.

"Come on Brittany. You know this one."

Brittany didn't reply to the shorter girl and continued staring at the textbook in front of her. A long minute passed before Brittany finally gave up on the question and groaned at herself earning a loud 'shh' from the librarian a few meters away from where they sat.

"Fuck this I'm done." Brittany grumbled out leaning back in her chair and slamming the book shut in annoyance. Another shh sounded behind them.

The blonde turned to face the old bitter woman sitting behind the large desk at the head of the library.

"Seriously what's with the shushing lady? There's no one in here!"

Santana rolled her eye's at the girl when two sets of shushs other than the librarians echoed through the large room. "Brittany you realize we have another hour to blow in this place? Can you not get us kick out. Again."

"Whatever." Was all the blonde said for along while before a devilish glint began to stur in those clear blue eyes of hers.

_That cant be good._ Santana had seen that look before on Brittany's face on countless occasions and it only meant one thing. Trouble.

"Whatever you're thinking about. Stop." The brunette warned the taller girl.

"It's not that bad." Brittany laughed.

"Yeah? That's what you said last time and we got sent to the principles office 5 minutes later." Santana reminded her. Never hand Brittany a straw in the middle of class because spitballs will be flying across the room in seconds. Santana has not once in her life been involved with someone as childish as Brittany. That was probably, however ,the part of the blondes personality that she loved most mainly because it always made her laugh.

"Stop being so uptight. Come on pack your shit and meet me at the front of the school in 10 minutes." The taller girl tried to convince Santana collecting her notes and textbooks from the table.

The shorter girl looked at her puzzled and frowned, but Brittany didn't say anything else as she headed towards the exit.

_Really?_ Santana asked herself still unmoving. She was so tempted to just stay there in the library until Brittany gave up on her idea and made her way back up to their table. But the tanned girl knew Brittany better than that. If she wasn't in front of the school in the time the blonde had told her to be down by the girl would probably leave or wait until Santana caved and came running out of the school hours later.

Her phone vibrated on the table a few minutes later.

[Brittany] 3:30 p.m: _I'm waiting ;)_

Sighing at herself the brunette slowly began packing up and headed from the main entrance of the school. Once she was outside Santana saw Brittany's bight red classic mustang parked in front. Santana remembers the first time she saw the car. Her jaw nearly dropped. With the classic rock hit _Summer of 69 _blaring out of the cars rolled down windows and Brittany loosely resting her right hand on the steering wheel with the other handing outside of the drivers seat window the blonde looked like one of those rocker chicks from the seventies. Santana felt like she had gone back in time for about 10 seconds that day.

_Brittany looked pretty badass thought._

The door on the passengers side swung open when Brittany noticed Santana standing a few feet away from the car. Taking a peek inside the vehicle Santana saw Brittany smiling at her from the drivers seat, her signature aviator sunglasses covering her eye's. As usual the old classic rock tunes were blaring inside and Brittany was gesturing her to get in.

"If this is another one of your attempts to skip our study session forget about it. I'm not coming with you."

"And how do you suppose your going to get home later? You're cars still at the garage and your uncle left early today."

Santana glared at the girl from were she was standing. She hated when the blonde cornered her in these type of situations.

"It's a surprise. Please." Brittany gave the brunette her signature pout that she knew the other girl wouldn't be able to say no too.

Santana shook her head at the girl but didn't bother to protest any further. Getting into the vehicle and buckling up the shorter girl resumed eyeing the tall blonde suspiciously but Brittany didn't take any notice to the looks being sent her way.

A block and a half later Brittany parked in front of a small coffee shop titled _Coffee Cat_ and cut the engine_._ Santana turned to look at the blonde weirdly.

"A coffee shop? Was it really necessary to drive here? You realize it's not even a two minute walk from the school." Santana questioned the girl but Brittany had already gotten out of the car and was opening the door for her.

"Come on." The blonde encouraged the brunette to follow her.

Granting the taller girl her request Santana followed Brittany inside. As soon as they stepped inside the heavy aroma of coffee surrounded the two. The place was nice and the brunette instantly felt comfortable in the small shop. Soft music was playing in the background adding to the over all welcoming vide of the place. Taking a look around Santana noticed a few students working on their laptops and chatting away with their friends. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. For once Brittan had managed to surprise her in a good way.

They took at a seat at one of the available booths near the front window.

"Told you it wasn't bad." Brittany smiled when she noticed the grin on Santana's face.

"Shut up." Was all she said back before a short pink haired girl approached them with a note pad.

"Welcome to Coffee Cat. May I take you're order."

"I'm never going to get use to you being this polite." Brittany joked with the girl.

"You're lucky I'm on the job or I would have flipped you off right now for saying that." Quinn countered.

Santana looked at Brittany with a raised eyebrow pointing a finger at the pink haired girl. The brunette recognized her as Quinn Fabray but was waiting on the blonde to introduce them.

Getting the hint the taller girl cleared her throat and took on a more serious demeanour.

"Quinn I'd like you to officially meet my tutor Santana. Santana this is my best friend Quinn."

Quinn gave the blonde girl a weird look before turning her attention to Santana and shacking the girls hand.

"Hi there. Nice to meet ya. Hope Britts isn't to much of a pain to be around. Believe me I would know."

The brunette shook the other girls hand and let out a small chuckle.

"She's not that bad. I'm still here right?" Santana winked at the blonde.

"True." Quinn acknowledged pulling out a pen from her apron. "So what'll you have?"

"Umm you guys sell ice caps?" Santana asked.

"Yep. Sure do."

"I'll take one of those thanks."

"Britts?" Quinn asked for the other girls order.

"Just a small black coffee." The blonde replied.

"Sure thing. Be right back." Quinn smiled before walking off.

Once their drinks were in Santana pulled out her textbook and started quizzing Brittany again. Their study session was still on technically and the blonde was no where near ready for their test. As the taller girl started to work on the chapter review questions Santana's thoughts began to wander. Ever since the sleep over she had with Mercedes and Tina some weeks ago the brunette had been hunted by the same question.

What had made Brittany well into Brittany? The bitter bitch she met that seconds week of September.

Santana had asked around about this unspoken 'Brittany thing', as she liked to call it, but no one ever gave her a straight answer. Not even her uncle who she had asked the previous day. The more people that avoided the question the more worried Santana became about asking the blonde about it. She had managed to get pretty close to the blonde over the last few weeks and didn't want to pose any questions about the girls passed that would jeopardize their steady _friendship_? Santana wasn't really sure what to call their relationship. Acquaintances? Not quite. Friends? Close but it wasn't the word she would use to describe it. There was always this weird vibe she got from the blonde. Ever since the first day they were formally introduce to each other by her uncle there has been an odd tension between them. It wasn't noticeable at first but as the weeks passed and they spent more time with each other it grew more notable. It was a peculiar feeling. Something that didn't quite fit into any category Santana could name off the top of her head but then again she had a bad habit of over thinking things.

Brittany must have sensed her inner turmoil because next think Santana noticed was the blonde nudging her from where she sat beside her.

"You ok?"

Santana's head shot up to meet the blondes gaze.

"Hmm? Yeah. I'm good."

Brittan didn't seem convinced.

"You sure? If you had your textbook open I would have thought that you were stuck on a really hard question or something but I have it…" The blonde trailed off.

"N-no. I mean yes. I'm fine. Just thinking." Santana stuttered. She felt a hot blush creep on her cheeks. Suddenly everything felt a little to crammed. Clearing her throat the shorter girl took a few sips of the drink she hadn't finished yet. Santana would do anything to get a little fresh air at that moment.

As if Brittany could read her mind the blonde got up from her seat and started to pack up her stuff.

"I think we've had enough Calculus for today. Lets take a study break."

Brittany held her hand out towards Santana. The brunette took it gratefully and followed the girl out of the coffee shop. Saying a quick goodbye to Quinn the girls left their stuff in Brittany's car and the blonde fished out her long board from the trunk.

"Where are you going with that?" Santana asked the girl.

"You'll see." Was all Brittany said smirking at her.

With that the two girls headed down north on State Street, the center of the city. The whole street was beautifully decorated and filled with restaurants and expensive shopping outlets. Santana had been there quite a few times since she moved to Santa Barbara but walking down the street had never failed to wow her.

Santana and Brittany walked in silence, occasionally commenting on something they saw in a store. They stayed like that until they reached a large empty parking lot that was located only a bloke away from the beach.

Brittany stopped walking and turned to face the brunette, a large smile on her face.

Santana didn't like the looks of this already but decided to see what the blonde was up too first before questioning her motives.

"Since you've been helping me out with school and surprisingly been able to tolerate all of my bullshit for the last few weeks I think it's about time I return the favour and teach you something." Dropping the long board that she's been hauling the last few blocks the blonde slides it towards Santana.

The tanned girl looked at Brittany like she had just grew another head. Hell no was she getting on that thing. She'd like to keep her limbs in tact for the remainder of the day thank you.

"If you're implying what I think you're implying the answer is no. I want to get home in one piece."

The taller girl rolled her eye's at her stubbornness and took a few steps towards her.

"Promise I'll help you out. Here take my hand." Brittany held out her hand to Santana the second time that day.

Santana looked between the board and the blonde for a second before taking it.

"Okay. But promise you wont let go."

"I already did. As long as you follow my instructions you'll be fine. Now take your leading foot and place it somewhere between the front bolts and the middle of the board."

Santana did as she was told and placed her left foot in the position Brittany told her to place it in. The blonde placed her foot near the tail of the board at the same time so that it wouldn't slide away unexpectedly under the brunette.

"Good. Now take your other foot and place it in front of mine."

Santana followed the blondes instructions. The taller girl cautiously removed her foot a second later and gripped her hand around the brunette's a little tighter. Santana smiled at the little gesture but quickly refocused herself to the task at hand. After the shorter girl managed to stay on the contraption from longer then a minute Brittany started to explain the second half of her lesson.

"K so far so good. Your going to have to give me your other hand for this next part."

The brunette complied.

"Bend you knees a bit. It helps you keep your balance better. Good. Now I'm going to push you a few feet k? Don't worry I wont let go." The blonde chuckled at the nervous look on Santana's face.

Brittany started rolling the brunette slowly forwards and gradually increased her speed ever few feet. Santana let out a small shriek of excitement at the mini adrenaline rush she was getting from it. This wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. A few seconds later she felt Brittany's strong hands leave hers.

"Brittany!" The shorter girl yelled out with a hint of panic in her voice.

"You're doing fine! Just don't hit anything!" The blonde called after her.

But the blondes advise had come too late. Santana leaned a little too far back in an attempt to steer away from the curb and landed flat on her ass. Mere millisecond later she heard Brittany's hysterical laughter behind her.

_That bitch is so dead._

Standing up the brunette stormed towards the taller blonde.

"You said you weren't going to let go!" Santana sneered at the slowly retreating girl.

"You were doing so well though. It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Brittany tried to reason with Santana but it was far too late for that. The blondes laughter continued when the fuming Latina sprinted in her direction. Irritated Santana took advantage of the laughing girl and tackled Brittany to the ground. Brittany let out a muffled 'oof' when her back hit the soft grass covered ground, Santana's weight crushing her chest.

The girl looked up at Santana with a stupid teasing grin on her face as the tanned girl pinned Brittany's arms down to her sides so she couldn't move. The shorter girl could feel the tension between them showing itself again and for some odd reason it sent a shiver down her spin.

"I'll give you something to really laugh about." The brunette mischievously smiled at the girl before attacking her sides.

"San-at-na.. Sto-p. I cant breathe." Brittany begged tears building up at the corners of her eye's.

"Not till you say sorry."

"Never!" The blonde refused.

"Say it!" Santana demanded increasing her assault.

"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" Brittany all out yelled heaving for air.

Satisfied with the answer Santana got off the blonde to let her catch her breath. It took a while for the other girl to recompose herself but when she did Brittany playfully glare at the brunette.

"You're ruthless."

"That's what you get for letting go." Santana shrugged.

Brittany let out a strangled chuckle and look over at the direction of the beach. The tanned girl noticed the other girls eye's soften as she continued to stare at the ocean waves.

"Want to go over?" Santana offered.

Brittany nodded slowly still a bit out of it. Picking up the blondes long board the two girls headed towards the beach. Once they reached the shore line Brittany sat down on the sand and patted the spot beside her signalling for Santana to join her. Settling down Santana looked out to the ocean. The familiar sounds of the tides and seagulls squawking filled her ears and she finally felt a sense of calmness wash over her.

"I use to come here when I was little." Brittany spoke up breaking the silence. "My mom would take me out to feed the seagulls every weekend and we'd eat ice cream while walking along the shore line here."

"Do you still come here with her?" Santana asked curiously.

The blonde was silent for a few seconds and shook her head no. Bringing her knees to her chest the taller girl rested her chin on them.

"I haven't been to this beach since she passed away."

Santana's eye's widened in surprise and she let out a small oh. She felt her heart sink a bit. She wasn't expecting for their conversation to head in the direction it did.

"Sorry.. Umm. I." The brunette tried to form some kind of apology.

Brittany chucked at her. "It's alright. I'm the one that brought it up."

Santana analyzed the other girls face to make sure she meant what she said. When she didn't find anything to tell her that the other girl was anything but ok the shorter girl let out a long breath.

"What happened?" Santana hear herself say out loud. It was a blunt simple question. Santana pursed lips together in anticipation when the blonde didn't say anything. Maybe she was overstepping some kind of bounty Brittany had. She felt stupid for letting her curiosity get the best of her.

"You don't have to answer that…. It just came out."

Brittany shook her head again. "It's ok. I think it's about time I told you about it. Everyone knows what happened. Why shouldn't you?"

Santana's body straitened up immediately. She had a feeling this had to do with the question that has been playing on repeat in her head for the last little while. Scooting closer to Brittany she waited for the taller girl to continue.

"Half way through freshman year during winter break my mom and I where on our way to San Jose to visit my dad's parents for Chrisman. My father was going to drive in the next day since he had some kind of important sugary thing going on at evening or whatever." The blonde face turned bitter at the last part. It was clear to Santana that Brittany wasn't ever found of her father. Whenever she talked about the man it would never be in a good light.

"Anyways, we were driving down the 101, only an hour away from the city, when a truck that was heading in the opposite direction lost control and skidded into our lain. Our car hit it head on and was flipped over into on coming traffic. Next think I know I'm being rushed into the ER with a gazillion people surrounding me. Two weeks later I woke up in a hospital in San Jose. My grandparents were there with me that day and told me my mom didn't make it. At first I was shocked not knowing what to think. I don't even remember crying, but than I just felt numb. I stopped caring about school. I started drinking. Got a few piercing and tattoos. I didn't even go to her funeral. I thought maybe if I found a way to forget it all the memory of that day would fade away eventually." She paused. "But these scars…." Brittany lifted up her tank top to show Santana the two long dark marks on along her rid cage. "… always make sure that doesn't happen."

Santana reach her left hand out to lightly graze the top of the imperfection on the blondes back. She felt the girls muscles twitch at the contact but she didn't remove her hand until her fingers reached the end of the scar at Brittany's hip bone.

"Pretty fucked up, huh?" The taller girls voice was calm but the Santana could tell she was holding back tears.

She smiled at herself sadly. "No. I know what it's like to loose someone close to you." She paused biting her lip when she felt Brittany's eye's on her. "My mother died when I was 8. She lost to a long battle with breast cancer. Even though we found out that she wasn't going to make it weeks in advance it didn't make it any easier saying goodbye. I didn't really know what death meant at the time. My dad told me it was when a person went to take a very long nap but he never specified that they would never wake up again. The hardest part of someone passing away is having to live with the fact that the person you lost will never be around anymore. But I learned over the years that even when their not around anymore little traces of them are still there. It's like they're still here somehow."

Santana smiled at that last part when she noticed Brittany grinning widely beside her.

"You seemed to have handled the situation a lot better than I did."

"Yeah well I don't think my father would have approved of an 8 year old alcoholic in the family." Santana joked trying to lighten the mood and successfully getting the blonde to let out a little chuckle.

The two girls fell into a comfortable silence listening to the sounds around them.

After a while Santana placed her head on the blondes shoulder. For some reason she just had the urge to do it. She felt the taller girls body shift but not way from her surprisingly. Instead. Brittany leaned further into her and rested her head on Santana's.

"You know what Brittany?" She asked the girl not taking her eye's off to the ocean in front of them.

"Hmm?" The blonde hummed in response.

"You're not as bad ass you set yourself out to be."

Brittany's body shook as she laughed out loud.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You're actually a pretty big softy." Santana chuckled at her own words. That would have been the last thing she would have told the girl when she first met her. But things changed.

"Shut up." Brittany mumbled but didn't deny the clam.

They sat in the same position until mid evening when they both decided it was time to leave. Heading back the they way the came earlier Santana gave long boarding another shot. This time, however, when Brittany promised she wasn't going to let go she kept it. It might have been because there were people around them this time and the blonde didn't want Santana ramming into any innocent tourist but the tanned girl felt like it was something a lot more then that. She couldn't put her finger on it but there was something new there between her and the other girl because Brittany seemed a lot more relaxed since their talk on the beach. She became a lot more bubbly, laughing and giggling at the stupid things the brunette would do and even joining her. Santana was happy to be able to see this side of Brittany. It suited the blonde a lot better than the hard cold hearted bitch attitude she tried too pull off when they first met.

An hour later Brittany was parking her car in front of Santana's house. Before shutting the car door behind her the brunette leaned down to get a better view of the blonde.

"I think we should make these study breaks a weekly thing."

Brittany shook her head in agreement. "Totally."

With that Santana waved the taller girl goodbye and watched her drive away. Once she couldn't see the car anymore the tanned girl started up the steps to her house.

"What's with that smug smile Mia? I never see you this happy on a week day." Antonio asked when she walked into the house.

"Oh it's nothing papi." Santana kissed her father hello.

The older man looked at her strangely before shaking his head and walking away.

"Teenagers."

XXXXXX

There you have it (:


	9. Just Friends

**Chapter eight: Just friends**

A few days later - October (Brittany's POV)

It was Saturday evening and Brittany was at home typing away furiously on her laptop with a mountain of textbooks and papers surrounding her. Quinn was there with her too occupying the blondes bed with her own work. This scene had been a frequent one in the last few weekends. When Brittany wasn't with Santana she spent her free time with the pink haired girl working away in her room. Quinn like herself had decided to clean up her act a bit. Even though the girl was, academically, the ideal student she never had a good run with her teachers. Like Brittany the shorter girl had a bad temper. Hell it was worse than the blondes but since the beginning of this year Quinn had reduced her amount of bitch fits. Well at school at least. Puck still got his daily does of insults from the pink haired girl. Brittany smiled at the thought of Quinn harassing the mohawked boy. Out of everything that had changed in the last little while that was one thing that stayed the same.

The two friends were sitting silently working away at their assignments when the doorbell rang.

Quinn looked up from her laptop at Brittany with a raised eyebrow.

"Expecting someone?"

The blonde frowned not looking away from her screen. Who the hell was at her door? Her father was out of town that weekend from some meeting in L.A and whats-her-face had gone to visit her family in Colorado but Brittany wasn't expecting them to be back till Monday. They would have called or texted her to let her know that they were coming home early. No one else came to mind.

"No. It's probably that creepy cat lady from across the street again. Just ignore it." The blonde brushed off the interruption but after a few minutes of quite the door bell rang again. And again. And again.

"Fucking hell." Brittany hissed out frustrated. Getting up from the chair she had been comfortably sitting in the blonde throw her laptop onto her bed and headed down the stairs. Not bothering to take a peak at who was standing outside her door Brittany swung it open ready to go off at whoever was loitering on her front porch.

"What?"

The blonde found Puck leaning against a pillar looking back at her with an equally irritated expression on his face.

"About fucking time you got your ass down here. Don't tell me you're going out like that?" Her friend gestured to her black sweats and raggy t-shirt.

"I'm going somewhere?" Brittany asked the boy confused.

"We made plans to hit the bar today. You know.. get hammered, pick up a few chicks." Puck explained. "Ring a bell? No pun intended."

_Shit._

The blonde had completely forgot that she had agreed to spent the evening with Puck. With school kind of taking over her life over the last few weeks it had become harder to really get out anywhere. That and she sort of made plans with someone else that day too….

"Right.. About that."

"You're ditching me again?" Puck looked at her in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Sorry…." Brittany cringed feeling shitty about bailing on the mohawked boy for a second weekend in a row.

"Britts when was the last time we went out? The Puckasaur needs some action. God knows you need to get some too."

The blonde scratched her head awkwardly. It has been a while since she's done the dirty and getting ride of some of the stress would probably make her feel better, _a lot better_, but for some odd reason she didn't want to go out any more. At least not in that way. She didn't want to get wasted with some random chicks at a bar and wake up a few hours later in a strangers bed with a wicked hangover. If it was any other day before school started than she should have gladly agreed to come along but the idea was strangely unsettling to her now.

"As awesome as that sounds I'm going to have to pass.…."

"Let me get this straight." The mohawked boy put his right hand in front of her face. "So you don't feel like ranging and banging tonight?"

_Ranging and banging? _She repeated to herself.

Brittany looked at Puck weirdly.

"No."

Puck narrowed his eyes at her.

"Who are you and what have you done with Brittany?"

The blonde rolled her eye's at him. "Look, I made plans with Santana and Quinn… I was going to tell you earlier but I forgot…"

The boy placed his hands on his hips and gave her his best 'are you serious look'.

"You'd rather hang out with those two instead of your Lesbro? And Santana of all people? Honestly? You spend like every living moment with her at school."

"So?" Brittany asked him blatantly. Sure they spent a lot of time together but it was all school related. This was different. They we're hanging out off school hours, no text books in sight.

_Hopefully._ Brittany musses to herself. For some reason the blonde half expected Santana to pull out a textbook on her in the middle of a conversation and start quizzing her on the Industrial revolution.

"What do you mean fucking so? You've never turned down a night out. Were you abducted by aliens? Did they take you to their mother ship and probe your brain with weird ass instruments?"

Brittany frowned at Puck. "Have you been watching The X-Files on that Sci-Fi channel again?" He's always had an odd obsession with that show ever since he discovered its existence back in junior high. The blonde still doesn't understand what's so interesting about freaky ass space mutants.

"Yes they had another marathon over the summer…. but that's besides the point." Puck waved his hand in the air dismissively and stared her down.

Brittany didn't quite know what to do so she just stared back at the boy. She shifted on her feet uncomfortably when the seconds passed to minutes and neither of them said anything to each other. Puck's eye's searched hers unblinkingly until they suddenly opened wide.

"Oh my sweet baby Moses." His gapped at the tall blonde.

"What?"

"You like like her don't you?"

Brittany was caught off guard by the accusation.

"W-what? No. No!" The blonde stuttered out. "We're just friends!"

_I think. _Brittany wasn't sure herself what her relationship statues was with the brunette. They never called each other friends before but it sure felt like they were in the friend zone. Or something like that.

"Bullshit. Just the other day you told me that you told her about your mom. Willingly! You would have never done that with anyone. Ever! Not even your best friends. And you just - BOOM - drop the bomb on her out of no where!" Puck ranted.

Well Brittany couldn't disagree with her friend there. She did willingly tell the other girl about the incident. But it wasn't really a planned thing. They were just sitting there looking out at the ocean and the blonde felt like she had to tell her about it. There was no other reason for the action. It had just felt right. And when Santana had taken everything in so calmly the blonde was glad that she did it.

"Admit it. You like her! You soo like her."

"For fucks sakes Puck! I don't like her like that." Brittany tried to defend herself again but her voice didn't portray the confidence in the words like she had expected it too. "And even if I did… Just no. No. It wouldn't be right."

The possibility wasn't even an option. Brittany knew how badly she messed up the girls she's been with. More like slept with. And she wasn't planning to write down Santana's name on that list. Ever.

Brittany closed her eye's and took in a deep breath before continuing.

"Listen I'm sorry I didn't tell you before that I had made new plans for tonight but I'm telling you now. I'm not up for it."

The blonde felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and a blur of pink hair appear in the corner of her right eye.

"I think you're just jealous Puckerman." Quinn stated resting her free hand on her hip. "It's girls night out and you're not invited so you start harassing poor Britts here. Why don't you get a bunch of your jock friends and fuck off? I'm sure you'll still find some jail bait to screw without Brittany."

Puck clearly wasn't expecting the shorter girl to weasel her way into their conversation because his face automatically turned a bit whiter at her sudden appearance. The taller girl let out a long breath and relaxed slightly. Thank God for Quinn. The girl was honestly the best life saver ever. If anyone could get her out a situation like this it was her.

Recomposing himself Puck cleared his throat.

"Fine. Whatever. I'm going to get laid tonight with or without you." He started to walk off towards his truck parked in Brittany's drive way. "You own me blondie."

Getting into his vehicle and slamming the drivers door shut a little bit more forcefully than necessary their friend drove off in a hurry.

_Fucking perfect._

"I feel bad." The blonde confessed to Quinn looking down the street Puck had driven away on. He had never gotten that fired up about her not going out with him. Than again she had never declined the offer before. It was kind of a default thing that she would always join him on his nights out. The blonde was kind of like his wing man. She had his back he had hers. It was odd not going with him this time.

"He'll get over it. One thing Puck cant do is stay mad at you. Plus we'll make it up to him by helping him set up for his Halloween extravaganza in a few weeks right?" Quinn nudged Brittany.

"I guess…"

"Come on. It's time to get ready. Santana just called you asking if we were ready to head out." The pink haired girl informed her before heading back upstairs to the blondes room.

Brittany nibbled on her bottom lip nervously before closing the front door.

_Hope you're right Quinn._

XXXXX

20 minutes later - Lopez residence (Santana's POV)

"Love to stay guys but I have to go." Santana apologized to her friends grabbing her house keys from her dresser. "Brittany just texted me that she's waiting for me in front."

The brunette had spent the last few minutes getting ready while having a multi skype conversation with Tina, Kurt and Mercedes. As usual the four friends had been chatting away about fashion, guys and gossip the whole evening.

"Oh mystery girl's still around eh?" Kurt wiggled his brows suggestively.

Santana looked at the boy in amusement.

"Yes _Brittany_ is still around. I'm tutoring her remember?" The brunette reminded her friend.

"More like baby sitting her." Mercedes corrected.

Santana stuck her tongue out at the girl.

"She's not as bad as everyone say's she is. She can be nice. Well when she wants too." Santana added in the last part.

"Yeah which is only when she's around you." Tina pointed out. "With everyone else she's still a bitch."

"If I didn't know any better Santana I would say that girl likes you." Mercedes mussed. "No one has ever been able to get through that girls thick skull like you have. Then again I wouldn't be surprised if Brittany's just be playing some game with you to get in your pants. She's been known to find really creative ways to do that sort of thing."

The brunette let out a strangled cough.

"N-no. Not a chance. We're just friends. Even if I was looking for something I mean she's a girl… "

"Right. Do you have any idea how any times I've heard that?" Mercedes deadpanned. "She has her ways with the lady's girl. All I'm saying Santana is don't get too close to her k? Last thing I want to hear is a rumour going around school that you're the 200th or whatever person on Brittany's one night stand list."

Santana nodded her head acknowledging her friends concern. But there was no way something like _that w_ould happen to her. She's good at setting boundaries. At least she thinks she's good at it. The tanned girl bit her tongue in uncertainty. In most cases yes but when it came to Brittany those boundaries were always shifting. It was hard to tell if they were even there at times.

Santana shook her head at herself. _No. It still wouldn't happen_. She had enough self control to get herself out of any situation. Even one like that.

"Okay well you shouldn't worry about it. Like I said we're just friends." The brunette tried to assure the three faces looking at her sceptically. "Anyways I have to run guys. Sorry."

Santana hurriedly said goodbye to her friends and signed off. That could have gone a little less awkwardly then it had but dwelling on what her friend just told her wasn't a priority at the moment. Right now she needed to get out there and have some fun.

_Lets do it._

Letting out a long breath to calm her rising nerves the brunette bolted down the stairs.

"Be back before 11:00 Santana!" Santana heard Maria shout from the kitchen.

"I know! Byee!" She yelled back to the older woman before stepping out of the house.

A few feet away Santana spotted Brittany leaning on the roof of her car waiting for her patiently. The blondes head was resting on her right forearm facing away for her and all you could see was her long silky hair messily cascaded over the roof. Santana felt a small smile grace her lips at the sight and it only grew larger when Brittany looked up in her direction. The taller girl gave her a lazy smile in return instantly.

"Hey there slow poke. Ready to go?"

"Got held up a bit but yeah. So what's the plan? Where we headed." Santana asked the blonde. Brittany never clarified what they would be doing today.

Quinn's head popped out from the back seat of the car upon hearing the question.

"Only to the best ice cream place in this city. Now get our ass's in the car. The place it bound to have a giant line up by know. The sooner we get there the sooner we get our ice cream." The girl said determined. "Oh and hi Santana. Nice to see you again."

Santana shot a look at Brittany but the blonde only shrugged and put her hands up in front of her.

"All right lets see how awesome this place really is. Shall we?" The brunette looked over at Brittany while getting into the passengers seat.

"Yes we shall." The blonde agreed slipping into her seat and turned on the engine.

The drive to down town was comfortable and full of conversation. It was mostly Quinn that talked throughout the car ride but Santana didn't mind. The pink hair girl asked her question every once in a while about her life in L.A. Everything ranging from where she went too school to her childhood growing up there. The brunette found it rather amusing actually. Quinn, despite her colourful vocabulary, was really cool in Santana's opinion. She was easy to talk too and pretty down to earth.

"So Miss Lopez," Quinn started getting ready to pose another question. "you must have someone back in L.A. Any boyfriends?"

Santana chuckled at the question. It was one that people had frequently asked her since she moved to Santa Barbara. All of them expected the same answer but to their surprise it was always the opposite one.

"Actually I'm single." Santana started to explain noticing Brittany's eye's darting in her direction but the blonde didn't say anything. "I've dated a few guys in the past but none of them were actually official or anything like that. There's that and my dad is pretty protective soo….'"

"I don't blame him. I've been there a few times and I can safely say there's all sorts of creeps in that city." Quinn commented.

"True but it would have been nice to hold down at least one relationship without having him scar the living shit out of every guy who came within a 10 meter radius of me." Santana sighed rubbing her temples. The amount of headaches she had developed over this topic was ridiculous and the brunette could feel one coming on just by thinking about her passed arguments with her father.

"Well this is a new city for you maybe you'll find someone…"

"Maybe…" Santana contemplated the possibility. So far no one had passed her radar. The people here were nice but none of them caught her interest in someway, that is, aside from Brittany….

The brunette looked over to see what the taller girl was doing and found her blankly looking at the road. It was hard to tell if she was lost in thought or concentrating on where they were going. Before the brunette got a chance to ask if the other girl was ok they had reached their destination.

"Hello McCollenn's Ice Cream." Quinn ginned widely at the sight of the small shop.

After Brittany found a parking spot the pink haired girl had ushered her and blonde out of the vehicle and towards the shop. The waiting line, as Quinn had predicted, was packed with people. But that didn't seem to bother the shorted haired girl anymore since she spent the whole time going over the different flavours of ice cream the shop had to offer in alphabetical order. Santana was surprised that Quinn was able to name off each flavour off the top of her head but than again it was clear the girl came here frequently. When it was their turn in to order Santana had just gone with a simple Chocolate chip mint and French Vanilla double scoop waffle cone combo. Brittany went with the same combo except she chose the Lemon and Raspberry sorbets as her two main scoops. Quinn on the other hand had gone all out getting a two person banana split. Santana had no idea how the girl finished that thing before her and Brittany had the chance to even get half way through theirs but she did and was currently walking in front of the other two girls taking pictures of the cities night life.

"Is she always like this?" Santana asked Brittany taking another bit of her cone.

The blonde smiled at her friend clicking away at her camera.

"No. Only when we go out for ice cream actually." Santana gave her a weird look. "Yeah I know I don't get it either. I swear they spike the Banana split or something cuz that's the only thing she gets there."

'Huh.. Maybe I should get that the next time we go over there." Santana mussed earning a chuckle from the blonde.

"Good luck finishing it. Quinn's the only person I know who can actually eat the whole thing by herself."

"I never said I was going to eat it alone." Santana elbowed the girl walking beside her. "Up for the challenge? I bet we could finish one of those faster than her if we tried."

"Sure thing but you better be able to keep up." Brittany nudged her back finishing off her cone in one bit.

Santana smirked at the taller girl. It was hard to believe in these kind of moments that Brittany was a girl that everyone spoke so lowly about. When the brunette looked at the blonde she didn't see the bitch everyone else saw anymore. She saw an actual person. And despite her friends constant warnings she couldn't bring herself to care about the girls past even though she knew she should. But does the past really matter when everything right now was going well?

"Hey Brittany?" Santana spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah?"

"We're friends right?" The brunette asked the girl tentatively. The word still didn't seem to fit but it was something and Santana accepted it. What else would they be?

"Well duhh. Of course we are." Brittany said looking at her as if was the most obivous thing in the world.

Santana bit back a smile at the blondes response.

"Good."

A minute later they noticed Quinn was speed walking towards them with a huge grin plastered on her face.

"Come on you two." The shorter girl grabbed each of their hands and tugged them towards a crowed of people gathered on the side of the street. "You're missing out on all the fun."

In the center of all the commotion was a group of street performers. Oooh's and Aaah's erupted from the crowed as the mini circus of acrobats and daredevils flipped and spun in the air. But the whole show was only background scenery to the brunette because all her mind was able to focus on was the sea of blonde hair at the corner of her eye. Her thoughts were preoccupied again. Something that she had become accustomed too since she moved to the city.

Santana looked up at Brittany who stood a few feet away. A tiny smile tugged at the left corner of the girls lips that Santana couldn't help but mimic. Brittany must have sensed her staring because she turned towards her a second later. Their eye's locked instantly and both of their smiles grew ten times their original size. The blonde threw her a playfull wink. Santana let out a low chuckle at the guesture as her stomached flipped in on itself. The feeling was familiar, having occurred several times in the last few weeks, and even though Santana still didn't know what it ment she welcomed it.

The answer will come to her eventually. She knew it would. It was only a matter of time.

XXXX

_(:_


	10. Too Far?: Part One

Another super long Chapter! Enjoy**.**

**Chapter nine: Too Far - Part One**

Three weeks later - End of October 2011

"Puck you fucking snail open the damn door!" Brittany banged on the boys front door.

It was the eve of the grand Halloween extravaganza and Brittany was staying over at her friends house that night to help him prepare for the party. It was the largest party of the year and took a whole day to organize and set up. Everyone always looked forward to it. With loud music, endless verity of drinking games and the gals walking around in sinfully inappropriate costumes it was a hit and a definite must to go too. Since this was their grad year it was probably going to be the biggest one yet. That is if Puck ever let her in. His house wasn't going to prep itself.

Just as she was ready to personally invite herself into Pucks home through the side window a muffled voice sounded for behind the door. A second later the mohawked boy swung it open.

"You look like shit." Brittany commented looking at her friend up and down. Large circles outlined the underside of his eyes and his usually well kept strip of hair was sticking out in every possible direction.

"Hi to you too." Puck greeted her half heartedly. "Where've you been?"

Brittany gave him an un-amused look.

"Me? The hell have you been? I've been waiting for you to answer the door for the last hour."

Okay she might have exaggerated that slightly. But still. A good ten minutes had passed since she arrived at his house and in her world that was close enough to an hour.

"My bad. I passed out after I came home from school." Puck let out a long yawn stretching his hands above his head.

Brittany raised her eyebrow at him but didn't bother to make another comment. For someone who spent most of his school day sleeping in class or skipping first to get some extra shut eye every now and then you would expect them to be 100% awake for the rest of the day. But nope. Not at all. Puck just ended up looking ten times more sleep deprived than the scrawny nerds he picked on.

"Where's Quinn?" The boy asked looking for any sign of the shorter girl.

"Work. She'll be off in a few minutes." Brittany explained. "Come on I got all your shit in my car. Mind helping me out."

Puck slipped into a pair of flip flops and headed towards the blondes car in his the drive way. Brittany grabbed one of the many massive boxes in her trunk packed with booze, shoot glasses, decorations, more booze, and handed it to Puck. One by one the two friends unloaded the vehicle. After a few trips in and out of the house they had managed to create a hefty piled of boxes in Pucks living room. Unpacking them one at a time Brittany and the mohawked boy started decorating the large house.

"How long are your parents staying in San Fransinsisco?" The blonde asked her friend as she headed towards to kitchen to get herself a beer.

"They're not back till Tuesday." Puck wiggled his dark brows joining her a second later and gabbing a drink for himself. "Which means one thing…. double party weekend!"

"You're going to throw two party's?" The blonde asked him sceptically. As awesome as that sounded no one's house not even the boys could stand that kind of beating.

Puck let out a short laugh. "I thought about that but the Puckasaur here is hosting a mini V.I.P party Sunday night for a few special ladies."

"Whore." Brittan smirked at the boy.

"Man whore." Puck corrected her. "Speaking of ladies, is your gal coming tomorrow?"

"Who?"

"Santana.."

Brittany stared at him blankly before replying. "How many times do I have to tell you. We. Are. Friends. Just friends. End of discussion."

"You still haven't answered my question.." Puck shook his head ignoring the tall blondes answer.

The taller girl sighed. "No she's not coming. Something about helping her dad out at the hospital this weekend. Volunteer work for her pre med app for university or something like that."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to get some Latina loving this weekend." Puck smirked seductively at the thought.

Brittany's face contorted in one of disgust. Was it really necessary of him to put that image in her head?

"Seriously dude? Did you really have to put that image in my head? And if you havent figured it out already Santana doesn't like you."

Puck scoffed. "Please she loves me. You're just jealous."

"Why would I be jealous?"

"Cuz I got more game than you." The boy teased.

Brittany narrowed her eye's at her friend. She knew exactly what he was trying to do. He was trying to get under her skin again. But luckily for her she knew exactly what bottoms she had to push in order to do the same the him.

"Is that right?"

"Mmh-hmm. Since you don't get around anymore the title for top stud has become mine. And that bothers you. So now you're trying to throw me off my game."

"That's how you see it?" Brittany asked him carefully earning a node from Puck. "Huh? Well I cant say that you're wrong. I havent had any action in the last little while. BUT…. You forgetting that I have one thing you'll never have and it can easily get me back as top dog."

The mohawked boys head shot straight up curiosity evident in his eye's.

"What might that be?"

"Swag."

"You're fucking kidding me right? That stuffs bullshit." Puck laughed at her. "There's only one thing out there that makes the ladies swoon and that's the Puckerman charm babe."

"That so? You're ex didn't seem to think so." Brittany smirked at the boy teasingly.

Pucks jaw dropped comically.

_Gottcha_.

"Y—y-you… a-and her… whhat!?"The mohalked boy tried to construct a comprehendible question completely baffled.

Brittany crossed her arms around her chest triumphantly enjoying the little mind fucking game she was playing with Puck. Of course she didn't sleep with his ex. That was against their Lesbro/Lesbo code. She had her girls and Puck had his. No mixing and matching was permitted but making the boy think, even for a second, that she had broken their oath was absolutely priceless. A bit mean? Sure. But totally worth it.

The doorbell rang before the blonde got a chance to respond to her friend's question.

"Open the fucking door Puckerman!" A familiar voice sounded from outside the house.

_Saved by Quinn yet again._ Brittany mussed.

"Hmm… Guess you'll never find out now huh?" The tall blonde grinned back at Puck devilishly before heading off to answer the door.

As Brittany walked further away from her friend she could hear Puck's silent cussing.

_Yeah that was definitely worth it._

XXXXXX

The next day – End of October 2011 (Santana's POV)

"What do you mean you're not ready?" Mercedes interrogated her over the phone.

Santana pursed her lips together. Saturday night had arrived quicker than she had expected and the most anticipated party of the year was about to go underway in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately though due to her packed schedule she wasn't able to attend it. And boy did she get a lot of hell for it from Mercedes and Tina. They had been trying to convince her to postpone her plans for that night since the official date for the party was set two weeks ago. Sure Santana was a little bummed out that she wasn't able to go but if she was truly honest with herself she didn't really mind missing it. The brunette never considered herself a big partier. Even when she lived in L.A. she didn't go to many parties and that city was considered to be one of the countries party capitals. She knew how things usually went during them. A few drinks here a few drinks there, people puking in the bathrooms, more mindless drinking, floppy drunk girls laughing hysterically while hanging off of some frat boy. Yeah she wouldn't be missing much if she didn't go to this party.

"Mercedes I told you already. I can't go. My dad should be here any minute."

"Can't you volunteer some other day?" Mercedes huffed out annoyed. "You've been running yourself down since school started with all the homework, tutoring and university prep. Seriously girl you are waaay to uptight."

Santana frowned in disagreement. "Am not." She knew how to have fun right? She could totally be a wicked party animal if she wanted to right? She just didn't want too. Plan and simple. There were other things that she considered more important.

"If you weren't than you would be going to this thing. I promise you it's unlike any party you've been too."

_Sure sure_. Like she hadent heard that one before.

"Santana!"

"Hold on a sec…" Santana heard her step mothers voice calling her from somewhere in the house.

"Yeah?" The brunette called after Maria.

A minute later the older woman's head popped out from the side of her bedroom door.

"Hey there Santanita. Your father just called me. He got called into E.R for a surgery just now. Unfortunately he said that he'll have to postpone you're volunteer meet to some other night."

Santana let out a small 'oh' upon hearing the news. Well that was convenient.

"So…it looks like your nights free. Maybe you can go to that "sleep over" your friends have been trying to convince you to attend for the last few weeks?" Maria suggested innocently as if she didn't know what was happening later that night.

Santana furrowed her brows.

"Sleep over…? Wait shouldn't't you be discouraging me from going to these kinds of things?" She questioned the older woman. That would be the responsible thing to do on Marias end after all especially with her father being so strict about parties.

"Technically I should be. BUT since I've seen how hard you've been working these last two months I think you deserve to get out for a bit." Maria winked at her.

"Okaay…"

"Plus I trust you to be responsible enough not to do anything stupid and I know that Mercedes and Tina will stick to you like glue during the whole thing and call me if anything happens. That being said I think my decision is rational in some sense."

"Right." Was all the brunette could say still not quite believing the words that were coming out of the other woman's mouth.

"That is if you want to go. The offers on the table. Oh and if your father asks about this don't worry about it. I'll take care of that. We clear? "

Santana slowly nodded her head in response.

"Good. If you do decide to go I expect you back home tomorrow by noon. No later. Remember that." Maria warned her before giving the brunette a warm smile and leaving the room.

Santana eyed the woman suspiciously as she watched her walk away. After a while she returned her attention back to the phone.

"Mercedes I think I'm being punk'd or something but –" The brunette began to explain before being cut off by her friend mid-sentence.

"Don't you worry baby girl I heard every word. I'm on my way."

Well so much for having a choice on whether she was going to go to this things or not.

Santana could hear a car engine rawr in the background and shook her head at herself before Mercedes hung up her phone.

This was an interesting turn of events. Whether it was a good turn of events or not she wasn't sure but she guess all she could do was just go with it and make the best of the situation. There was one problem though…

"I don't have a costume." Santana told her friend five minutes later when the short diva had picker her up for her house. People get dressed up at these things right? So it would be kind of awkward if she arrived there in plain clothes.

"Tina's got you covered. She has a ridiculous collection of random stuff in her closet. I'm sure we'll be able to find you something." Mercedes assured her driving to the other girls house.

When they arrived to Tina's place Santana was ushered to the girls room and thrown into the shorter girls bathroom along with a pill of possible outfits for that night.

"K so you can go with the sexy cop, the candy stripper nurse outfit, the devil in red or my all time favourite the Goth punk!" The tanned girl heard Tina squealed from the other side of the door.

Santana eyed the clothes in front of her. As good as those choices sounded none of the outfits caught her eye. She tried them on anyways though. Maybe some of these things looked better on an actually person rather then a hanger but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Every costume she changed into earned a thumbs down from her two critics.

Just before the three friends were about to give up Tina fished out one last item of clothing from her closet and tossed it to Santana.

The tanned girl eyed the sinfully short white dress in her hands in uncertainly.

"I'm not sure about this one guys.." Santana struggled to zipped up the article of clothing. Not only was it short but it was ridiculously tight and a pain to breath in.

"Just get your skinny ass out of there already!" Mercedes groanded out in frustration.

Stepping out of the bathroom Santana stood in front of her friends waiting for their opinions on the dress.

"Holy sweet baby Jesus." The diva gapped taking in the sight of her friend before her. Tina stared at the brunette with the same expression on her face.

"Too much? I feel like my boobs are about to fall out of this thing any second now." Santana looked down at her overly exposed cleavage.

"Oh hell no girl. You look hot! Like an angle but a little less modest."

_A little? _This dress hugged ever curve on her slender figure, emphasizing her assets unlike any articles of clothing she had ever worn before. A little was an understatement.

"Really?' Santana asked them not to convinced that this was the costume for her.

"100% positive." Tina agreed with Mercedes. "We don't have much time to fuss over it. Here put these on."

The shorter girl handed Santana a pair of small angle wings, a fluffy feathery halo and a pair of white high heels to finish off the look. Tina than handed her a curling iron and make up kit to keep her busy while she and Mercedes quickly slipped into there own costumes. Tina dressed up as conniving witch and Mercedes as a blood thirsty vampire queen. It was amusing to Santana how neither of their outfits matched but somehow managed to work together.

_An angle and two devils_. The odds were definitely not in her favour. She didn't stand a chance in weaselling her way out of this situation even if she tried.

After about 15 minutes the girls were ready to head out.

"Ohh her we go gals! Time to Party Rock." Mercedes shouted as they neared the Puckerman residence.

Santana felt her stomach twist nervously. If this part was as big as Mercedes clamed it was she was definitely in for it. Not to mention the fact that she hardly knew anyone that was attending. Sure they were probably all from her school but aside for a few acquaintances, her main little group of friends and Brittany she didn't have anyone else.

The tanned girl smiled to herself. She had forgotten that the other girl was going to be there. Which was going kind of silly on her par because Brittany was the first one to ask her if she wanted to go to it. There was that and the fact that the blonde was Pucks best friend.

_Guess I'll be making a surprise appearance tonight. _Santana thought to herself feeling her nerves settle down slightly.

Blaring dance music filled her ears short moments later as Mercedes parked her car on a side road near Pucks place. Filing out the vehicle the three friends headed towards the noise. They arrived at the foot of the house a minute later and Santana's jaw nearly dropped to the ground at the sight of it. Fog machines were running covering the whole front yard with a thick white smoke, party lights were shinning from inside the house in various colours and Halloween decorations composed of fake body parts, grim weepers and pumpkin lanterns were scattered al over the large front porch.

"Holy shit." Santana breathed out.

"Told you it wasn't a normal party." Mercedes smirked.

"No kidding…"

"K before we go in one ground rule. Always tell one another were we are and who we're with. And just a reminder we have to meet back out here around 2 a.m 3 ish. Got your cell phones?" Tina asked the two girls in front of her.

Santana and Mercedes both shook their heads yes in response.

"Then what are we waiting for. Lets get our party on!" Tina screamed heading up towards to house's entrance.

"Come on snixy." Mercedes took the tanned girls hand. "You heard Tina. Time to loosen up."

Santana smiled squeezing her friends hand in hers and headed inside. Manoeuvring through the crowd of people the two caught up with Tina eventually who they found chatting away with some of their other friends.

"Heeey! Little Chang brought the other gals!" Blain shouted over the blaring music his speech already slurring slightly. "You guys want something to drink?"

Blain waved a bottle of tequila in his hand and a stack of plastic shot glasses in the other. Santana laughed at the boy and took the bottle from him.

"Easy there hobbit. I think you need to slow down a bit. I'll handle this."

The shorter boy didn't protest and let Santana pour everyone a shot. All together the small group of friends lifted there glasses in the air.

"To Senior year! Saying good bye to high school but hello to life!" Sam yelled loud enough for everyone to hear and threw his drink back.

The whole group cheered to the toast and did the same.

Santana's face contorted at the burning sensation the liquid sent down her throat. No matter how many times she had this stuff it always felt like someone had set her throat on fire.

Pouring herself and Tina another round she spotted a familiar face amongst the crowed of people surrounding them. A tall blonde stood in the opposite side of the room leaning against the far wall, a drink in hand. She wore a raggy off-white blouse with a black coloured vest that had large silver buttons along the middle and a chain hanging off the left side. A dark skull covered bandana was wrapped around her head and heavy black make up encircles her eyes. Santana couldn't make out who it was at first but once she noticed a certain lily tattoo design on the girls arm she took her phone out and typed out a quick text.

To: [Brittany] - Ahoy there miss Jack Sparrow ;) How be the party?

Santana noticed the blonde jump and mover her hand towards her left pocket. Brittany looked at her phone for a second and surveyed the room.

A minute passed when the brunette's phone vibrated.

From: [Brittany] - Hey (: awesome you're missing out.

To: [Brittany] - Oh really? Look around the room.

The taller girl's brows scrunched together in confusion as she read the message but did what Santana told her to do. The brunette chuckled to herself and texted the blonde again.

To: [Brittany] - You're Cold.

Santana took a few steps closer to where Brittany was standing as the blondes eyes wandered across the crowed.

To: [Brittany] - Warmer.

She was half way across the room at this point but the blonde was yet to spot her.

To: [Brittany] - Super close.

Santana was less then three meters away from the taller girl now. Just as she was about the send out another text the blondes gaze fell on her.

"Hot". Santana smirked mouthing the word.

Brittany's eye's widened dramatically.

"Santana!" She spoke out in an uncharacteristic squeaky voice.

The tanned let out a short giggle at the blondes reaction.

"You're here!" The taller girl said in a less high pitched voice looking her up and down. 'A-aand.. Umm… y-you look wow."

Brittany coughed awkwardly clearly taken back by her outfit. Santana could have sworn that a light pink blush was forming on the other girls cheeks but the dim lighting made it hard to tell. She smiled at the though anyways, even if it might have been a fragment of her imagination.

"You look pretty smexy yourself Miss Pierce." Santana complimented Brittany's costume in return.

The taller blonde let out a nervous laugh scratching her head.

"Umm thanks." Brittany breathed out still looking a little flustered.

The brunette raised an amused eyebrow at her.

"You ok there?"

The taller girls created her throat before speaking again. "I-im fine. Just a little surprised that you're here and… yeah.."

Santana shook her head at Brittany earning a shy smile from the girl.

"So… you just get here?" the blondes asked her changing the subject.

"Yep. A few minutes ago actually. I was with Tina and them but I don't know where they went…" Santana tailed off looking back to where her friends were a second ago but found that they were no longer there. So much for Maria's prediction. She was felt stranded at this party like a sitting duck. Luckily she had Brittan for now.

"Ugh.. Guess I'm stuck with you than huh?" Brittany grimaced faking her disappointment.

_On second though maybe not._

"Well.." Santana began with a teasing grin. "If you're not going to appreciate my company than I'm just going to find someone who will. I'm pretty sure I saw Quinn somewhere around here…"

"No you don't." Brittany protested immediately taking a hold of her hand and dragged her out of the crowded room. "You're coming with me."

"Where are we going?" Santana squealed at the blondes sudden movements.

"You any good at beer pong?"

"Not really." the shorter girl admitted. She had only played the game one or twice before.

"Good enough for me." Brittany grinned tugging her towards the kitchen.

When they finally got there Brittany found Puck amongst the crowed and asked him to set up a game for the two of them.

"Yeah sure. But do you think you ladies can take a whole game with the Puckasaur?" The boy challenged.

"We're playing against you? Piece of cake dipshit. Bring it." Brittany taunted him back.

Pucks smug face fell and turned into a scowl.

"You're on Britts. Hey Rick come over here!" The mohawked waved over the hockey jock.

Brittany frowned as the mulleted boy walked over.

"Up for a game against these two?" Puck pointed to his kitchen table and than herself and Brittany.

Rick let out a bellowing laugh. "If you can even call it a game. It's more like a suicide mission. Right Lesbo?"

"For you it's going to be." Brittany hissed out.

"Just keep telling yourself that. Let's whip their sweet asses Puckerman. And maybe when we win you pretty lady," Rick pointed at the brunette. "might switch teams and get lucky tonight with your's truly."

The blondes hand tightened around her own and Santana could tell she a second away from throwing punches. Pulling Brittany back slightly the shorter girl took a step closer to Rick.

"I wouldn't count on it Ricky. You should save it for a girl who can tolerate a twig fucking her cuz last time I heard that little friend of your's..." She gestured to the boys crouch. "is no bigger than that ridiculous nick name you _so _proudly go by."

Both Brittany and Puck pursed their lips together trying to hold cack their laughter. Rick looked back and forth between her and the blonde before puffing out his chest in attempt to regain some of his lost pride.

"Fine. Whatever chika. You're lose. But I'll be the last one laughing when you two are shit faced drunk after this game." The mulleted boy spit out heading towards the kitchen table.

"Fuck Lopez has some game!" Puck shouted going in for a high five.

Santana scoffed at the mohawked boy and ignored the gesture.

"You're in the same boat as him Noah. Don't be getting any ideas."

"Ooh sharp and feisty. Got yourself a catch here eh Britt?" Puck winked at his friend before running off in the same direction Rick had.

"That little… he's-he…" The taller girl attempted to insult the retreating boy.

Rolling her eye's at the blonde Santana leaned in closer towards Brittany to whisper in her ear so that she could didn't have to shout over the music.

"Save it for the game."

A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips when she felt the blondes breath hitch slightly at their sudden closeness. The familiar tension started creeping back again twisting up a storm in her stomach like it had so many times before. She waited for Brittany to node in agreement before backing away.

"K than. Lets screw these bastards into another era." Santana smirked leading the tall blonde to the table.

Once they reached their destination the game started. As it progressed a small crowed of people gathered around them cheering and booing ever time someone scored or missed a cup. A little over half way through the game Santana and Brittany were tied with their opposing team, 3 cups to 3. The brunettes nerves were making it hard to focus and she could tell Brittany was on edge too. It was the boys turn to shoot and if the got their balls on target they would be two cups closer to loosing.

"Fuck yeah!" Puck yelled along with Rick when two of their shots went in. "Chug it girlies!"

Brittany cursed under her breath as she handed a cup to Santana and took the other for herself.

The crowed chanted chug as they downed their drinks. An instant mellow feeling took over Santana's body and the tanned girl relished in it. Slamming her cup on the table she looked over at Brittany.

"What do you say we end this thing already?"

The blonde smiled widely at her in agreement.

Brittany was the first to shoot and easily got her ball in.

Taking a deep breath in Santana rolled the ping pong ball around her fingers focusing on the cups in front of her. She had two options. One: dunk her ball in the same cup as the blonde's and shoot again after to get the last remaining cup or, two: take a risk and bouncing her ball into the two remaining cups for a double cup bonus calling it a night.

Santana bit down on her bottom lip.

"Is little Sanny scared to loose?" Puck mocked her from the opposing side. Rick joined him by making chicken noises getting some of the members of the crowed into it too.

The shorter girls jaw tightened at the boys taunting and all hesitation left her as she let the ball leave her hand. A faint pang sounded through the commotion around her when the object bounced off the table. Next thing she knew the crowed erupted in cheers. Santana was too lost in her haze to realize what was going on around her. It took Brittany lifting her off the ground by the waist to bring her back to reality.

"You did it!" The blonde beamed at Santana swinging the shorter girl around in a circle.

The brunette giggled at Brittany's excitement and wrapped an arm around the taller girls neck as they celebrated their win with the random people surrounding them. Puck and Rick were yelling at each other a few feet away not paying them any mind or bothering to ask them for a redemption round.

_Look who's scared now_.

"You're fucking awesome you know that?" Brittany smiled putting her down.

Santana let out a low chuckle and shook her head in disagreement.

"No we're awesome." She corrected.

"Totally. Victor shot?" Brittany offered shaking a bottle of vodka in her hand.

Santana knew she should lay off the liquor for a little while but there was something in her that told her to fuck it. After all the night was still young and the party had just started.

"Fill'em up Sparrow!"

What harm could one little shot do?

XXXX

Part two is underway (:


	11. Too Far?: Part Two

Enjoy (:

**Chapter nine: Too Far? - Part two**

Saturday night - Brittany's (POV)

Okay so those shots were definitely a bad idea. What started off as simple victory toast ended up turning into a drinking competition between her and Santana. Brittany had to admit though for someone of the other girl's size she could really hold her liquor. But after two shots the blonde noticed the brunette start to slip up and decided that it was best for them to save their booze fest for another night.

"Santana this way." Brittany tried to direct the tipsy girl up the stairs which proved to be a lot more challenging then she had expected.

"I gotzz this.. ." Santana protested swatting the taller girls hand away and began walking in the opposite direction.

_Oh jeez._

"No you don't." The blonde rolled her eye's redirecting the brunette. "Up is this way."

"I-I knew that." Santana slurred letting out a little giggle. And another. And another. Until the two of them reached the top of the stairs when she burst into a fit of laughter for no particular reason.

Thank God those beer pong cups where only half full or this situation could have went in a completely different direction. Like hanging around the bathroom toilet for the rest of the night.

Yeah that was definitely not how she wanted to spend the last few hours of the party.

All Brittany wanted to do now was get the shorter girl to lay down somewhere for a bit and keep her away from any predatory frat boys while she went in search for her friends.

After knocking and awkwardly walking in on a few people clearly in the middle of their little midnight fling, Brittany finally found a vacant room.

"You need to stay here while I go find Mercedes and Tina k?" The blonde explained to the shorter girl guiding her to the bed and shutting the door behind them.

The brunette took of her heels and halo before plopping down on the mattress heavily face first.

"Mmmh comfy…" Santana commented her voice muffled by the sheets.

"Right. I have to run. Here drink this before I get back." Brittany set down a water bottle on the night stand near the tanned girl. "And don't let anyone in unless it's me."

Santana looked up at the blonde with a pout.

"You're not going to stay?"

"Noo…" The blonde drew out walking towards the door. She was pretty sure she made that clear a second ago. Then again the brunette wasn't in a state where she could grasp information all too well. "But I'll be back in a sec."

Santana buried her head back into the sheets. A minute later her shoulders started to shack violently.

_Oh no. no no no no._

"Hey. Hey. Santana I wont be gone that long. Promise." Brittany tried to sooth the other girl. She went over to the bed and sat down next to her awkwardly fiddling with a chain on her vest not knowing what to do. Should she hug Santana? Rub her back to calm her down? Or?

"No it's ok." The shorter girl stood up whipping the tears from her eye's. "I just get like this when I drink too much. I'll be fine… I'll be fine. I'm fine. Really."

Brittany's brows scrunched up in concern. That would not be the choice of words she would use to describe the girls physical and emotional state right now.

"You must think I've gone mental." The brunette breathed out sniffling.

"No I don't." The blonde shook her head in disagreement.

"I don't know why you're still with me. You've been so nice to me all evening and now I'm just a mess." Santana went on curling herself into a ball.

"Santana.."

"If I wasn't here you would have probably already picked up some chick..."

"San-" Brittany tried to cut into her rant again.

"..and be dancing with everyone else downstairs having a great time. But nooo. You're stuck with me and-."

"Santana!" The taller girl grabbed the brunette by the shoulders attempting to get her attention again. "Look I had an awesome time with you tonight k? I wouldn't trade it to hook up with some random girl for a few hours. Ever. Hanging out with you is ten time better."

"You mean that?" The brunette mumbled a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"For sure." Brittany smiled back to reassure the girl

Santana pursed her lips together and nodded. They sat in the quite room for a few minutes listening to the booming bass of the speakers below them in the living room. Brittany waited for the brunette to say something.

"Can you stay with me for a while?" Santana finally asked.

The blonde shook her head yes in response and lay down next to the other girl. She propped her shoulder on the bed and rested her head on her hand watching Santana cautiously. The brunette's make up was slightly smudged, her large volumes curls from earlier that night had fallen into waves and she looked like a little five year old curled up in a ball at the foot of the bed. Brittany smiled at the sight. How could someone even in this state look so cute?

The blonde snapped out her daze when she felt the mattress in front of her sink. With wide eye's the taller girl watched Santana as she scooted herself closer to her until her balled form was snuggly resting against the blonde.

Brittany wanted to stay something and anything but the words wouldn't leave her gapping mouth so she closed it. She knew she should leave now but Santana looked so vulnerable and small. It didn't feel right to just leave her alone right now. She was tempted to wrap her arms around the shorter girl and hug her tightly until she fell asleep but there was another part of her that told her to let Santana be. So the blonde settled with just lying there groaning to herself internally.

When did she become such a sap? Never in a million years did she see herself in a situation like this. Comforting someone. It was a foreign concept to her. She wasn't one for cuddling or hugging for that matter. Making someone feel better in her life for the last couple of year consisted of a pat on the back, a shoulder punch, or a simple nudge or two. This though, lying in bed with someone curled up into her front was nowhere on the list. It wasn't unwelcome however. It felt kind of nice.

Minutes passed and neither of them said anything. Brittany assumed that Santana had fallen asleep but when she checked the brunette was absentmindedly playing around with a loose thread on her dress.

"Thank you." Santana whispered out so quietly the blonde barely heard her.

Brittany frowned in confusion. "For what?" If anything she should be thanking her for sticking around for so long. The blonde never expected for Santana to keep up this tutoring thing for as long as she did, especially in the first week they had been together.

"I don't really know.." Santana shrugged looking up at her for the first time in what felt like hours. "For this i guess. For staying here with me."

The blonde met the other girls gaze. Deep brown eye's bore into her light blue ones and an unusually warm feeling bubbled at the pit of her stomach. It wasn't foreign however. It had been reoccurring over the last few weeks, in moments similar to these.

Brittany brought her forehead to rest on Santana's. It was an odd thing to do on her part but it felt like the right thing to do. And when the tanned girl didn't back away she assumed it was a good move.

What she did next however was something completely uncalled for. She leaned a bit closer towards Santana and lightly grazed her lips against the other girls. It wasn't quite a kiss though. More like a 'you're welcome' gesture. But as fast as that little exchange occurred so did the realization of her actions.

"I… Sorry that.." Brittany stuttered out in panic feeling a light brush grace her cheeks.

Santana shook her head tilting it upwards towards her. "Don't apologize."

The blondes mind stalled for a second, thinking that she had misheard what the shorter girl said until a pair of plump lips connected firmly against her own.

Brittany inhaled sharply at the unexpected contact. And when the kisses just kept on coming one after another her stomached twisted in on itself. Each time their mouths reconnected they moved a little faster, pressed against each other a little harder, became a little hungrier. The minutes passed and the blonde could feel her head start to spin from the lack of oxygen in her system. Reluctantly she pulled away from Santana. Her lungs inhaled the thick air in the room gratefully and by the sound of it so did the other girls.

Brittany wasn't sure when it happened but somehow their positions had changed. Santana was no longer a curled up mess lying beside her. Instead she had comfortable managed to straddle her hips and was currently peppering her jaw and upper neck with kisses. Every time those lips touched her burning skin Brittany was one step closer to losing touch with reality.

"Santana…" She breathed out when the other girls tongue grazed the sensitive skin behind her ear.

Santana responded with a hum not stopping her assault on Brittany's neck. The sexual tension was become too much for her to handle. She needed to act fast. She needed to get out of here. Push Santana off of her and take the girl home. But all the blonde could do was shut her eyes tightly and curl her fingers around the sheets beneath her.

_Crap_.

They shouldn't be doing this. They were just friends after all right? Friends didn't do these kinds of things. They needed to call it quits. They were drunk. Santana even more so than she. They would regret this. Oh how Brittany knew they would but she couldn't bring herself to move. A part of her just wanted to give in. Because damn Santana's outfit had been driving her mad all evening. She felt like a complete perv sneaking glances down the girls dress. And that ass…

_No_.

Fuck they needed to stop. Now.

"W-we need to s-stop." Brittany barely got out rolling her eyes into the back of her head as Santana sucked on her pulse point.

The brunette pulled away slowly licking what Brittany knew was going to be hickey the next day one last time.

"Is that really what you want?" Santana questioned her leaning dangerously close to her face. The tanned girl's eyes were darker than they were earlier. Full of lust, hunger, and... something else. Brittany couldn't decipher what it was but there was something hidden under the other girls chocolate orbs. "Well?"

The taller girl groaned out her response not trusting herself to speak. She wanted so desperately to say 'yes. She wanted to stop.' That would be the right thing to do after all but that answer was a lie.

"If you tell me that's really what you want I'll do it. I'll stop." Santana tugged on Brittany's lower lip with her teeth gently.

The blonde barely swallowed the whimper that was threatening to sound passed her lips.

"Tell me to stop. Say it. That's all you have to do. Just say it." Santana practically begged her. Brittany could tell the tanned girl was having as much trouble restraining herself as she was but the tension between them was too strong to ignore. They both wanted whatever this was.

Brittany felt Santana's tongue trace across her bottom lip and at that every moment something in the blonde snapped. She couldn't stop herself from flipping their positions so that the shorter girl was the one being roughly pressed into the mattress. She couldn't stop herself from attacking the girls mouth a second later, tongue, teeth, everything. The urge to fell every inch of Santana's skin had overcome all of her senses.

The tanned girl seemed to have the same feeling because her hands had already began to wander underneath Brittany's shirt, her fingernails clawing up and down the blonde's torso shamelessly. Brittany let out a low growly at the sting that followed each stroke of Santana's fingers along her sensitive flesh.

The blonde's hands eventually found their way to the zipper of the other girls dress and Santana's found their way to the buttons of Brittany's vest and shirt. Before either of them knew it both girls were ripping the offensive pieces of clothing off each other. By the end Brittany only had her shorts to cover her naked form and Santana was clad in nothing but her underwear.

Feather night moans erupted from Santana as Brittany worked her mouth down her body. Starting at the brunette's lips the taller girl gradually drew a line of wet kisses from Santana's jaw to her neck, than to her shoulder and collar bone, only stopping when she reached the tanned girls perfectly round breasts. Brittany's tongue circled the sensitive area around Santana's dark nipples teasing them for a while before attacking the hard nubs with her teeth and oh so eager mouth.

The brunette let out a strangled breath lifting her body off the mattress and into the blonde.

"Sh-shit."

Brittany hummed in agreement relishing in the adrenaline rush she was experiencing at that moment. It was unlike anything she had experienced before. Her body was ecstatic. With her hips slowly rolling into Santana's in-between the shorter girls legs, her hands teasing the twitching skin on the other girls lower torse/hip area, all while Santana's fingers where painfully scratching at her scalp. She was in fucking heaven.

"Britt-." The tanned girl groan bucking her hips in time to hers.

Brittany didn't need to be told twice. She let her hand maneuver its way between their bodies, passed the brunettes underwear, until it cupped the soft warm flesh that was hidden underneath.

Santana bit down on her own lip as Brittany worked two fingers up and down her sex gently teasing her clit every few strokes. When the blonde thought that Santana was ready she slowly pushed one finger into the other girl careful not to hurt her. Santana slammed her head backwards into the pillows of the bed instantly a reaction Brittany was all too familiar with. She began a steady rhythm, pumping the single digit in and out of the other girl's wet sex. The tanned girl met each of her thrust with her hips.

Just as Brittany was about to slip a second finger into the brunette, Santana weaseled her own hand to the button of her shorts and flipped open the article of clothing on the first try. The shorter girl copied Brittany's movements from a minute ago and explored the wet flesh around her fingertips.

"F—u.." Brittany failed to complete the word not expecting the intrusion.

"I'm not letting you have all the fun." Santana whispered lowly into her ear dipping two fingers knuckle beep into her heat.

Sweet Hell. Brittany withered at the sensation of being filled completely for the first time in two months.

Regaining some of her composure the taller girl resumed her pace from earlier. There was no way she was going to fall apart now. She was going to keep going until Santana was a screaming mess under her. But the tanned girl seemed to have the same plan for her because she matched Brittany's persistent movements just a second later.

Moans filled the room more frequently as their thrusts grew deeper and faster by the second. Brittany could tell they were close. They're muscles were contracting around each other's fingers, hearts beating so loud that they drowned out the sounds of the booming base below them. If that wasn't enough of a reason for Brittany completely let go Santana went ahead and started chanting her name with ever hard thrust they pumped into each other.

Brittany tried to keep herself from falling over the edge but it all finally became too much for her to handle when Santana's fingers hit a spot in her that she didn't even know existed until now. Her body withered in pleasure instantly, Santana following her milliseconds later.

The tanned girl crashed their mouths together one last time muffling their moans as their climaxes reached there peak. Brittany could see stars behind her eye's as wave after wave of pure bliss ran down her spine.

They kept up a slow rhythm until both of their bodies were spent. Brittany couldn't help but collapse right on top of the shorter girl, her muscles not letting her move another inch. Santana let out a small 'oof' but didn't complain about the extra weight pressing her down into the bed. Instead the girl wrapped her arms around the blonde securely holding her in place. Hearts beats returned to normal and pumped in synch with each other. During that moment reality came crashing down on her.

Brittany pursed her lips together feeling the overwhelming emotion of guilt consume her. A hundred different scenarios played in her head on how she could have avoided this situation. But none of them could change the circumstance she was in now. She screwed up. Big time.

Burning tears pooled in her eyes.

_What the fuck did I just do?_

XXXXXX

This was my first time writing a sex scene. I hope it was realistic enough. Give your thoughts if you have any tips on how I could improve my writing for these kind of things when developing future chapters/fics. Thanks (:


	12. Authors Note

Hello to all the Moving to Santa Barbara followers.

I'm really sorry about abruptly stopping my updates for this fic but very important things have come up in the last month. I just started university and working part time. Upon being at school or at work I'm barely home and I don't have time to write any new material. I'm also fresh out of ideas at the moment as to what I would like to do next in this fic. As to when I will start updating again, it's extremely hard to tell. Life's just way too busy right now for any hobbies (I know it sucks). Sorry once again and hopefully I can get back to writing soon. I know many of you are patiently waiting to see what's in store for our two-shot (:

-Kristina


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